The government yesterday formed a three-member probe committee to investigate the suicides and unnatural deaths of BDR jawans in custody after the mutiny at the Pilkhana BDR headquarters.
The committee headed by Deputy Secretary (Police) of the home ministry Zakir Hossain has been asked to submit its report to the government within 15 days, reports private satellite TV station Channel i.
The two committee members are Assistant Superintendent of Police Mahfuzur Rahman al Mamun and Maj Arifuzzaman.
The government in a circular asked the committee to determine the number, name, designation, and address of the BDR jawans who died after the mutiny.
It has been asked to prepare a list of the deceased BDR jawans, find out the causes of their suicides or unnatural deaths and make recommendations for preventing such suicides and unnatural deaths in future.
The home ministry sent a letter to the health ministry for inclusion of a physician in the committee.
Meanwhile, the national committee probing the massacre at the BDR headquarters is likely to submit its report to the government today.
Although the report was completed several days back, the committee took a few more days to submit it as some works including binding copies of the report were not finished.
Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday placed 67 suspected BDR rebels on remand for five days each for interrogation in the Pilkhana mutiny case.
Five other suspected mutineers made statements to magistrates in Dhaka courts confessing to their involvement in the massacre during February 25-26.
Meantime, a joint team of police and Rab arrested 140 BDR jawans from different battalions in Sylhet in connection with three sedition cases filed by police for staging mutiny on February 26.
Public Prosecutor Misbah Uddin Siraj told The Daily Star that the trial of the cases would begin on May 26 at the Sylhet District and Sessions Judge’s Court.
Sources said the chairman of the 11-member probe committee would submit the report to the home minister. The last one-month deadline for submitting the report expired on May 11. Earlier, the deadline had been extended several times.
The committee headed by former bureaucrat Anisuzzaman Khan is comprised of serving bureaucrats and high-ranking officers from the army, navy and air force.
Our court correspondent reports: The Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s court granted five days’ remand for each of the 67 BDR jawans after the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of police prayed for seven days’ remand for each.
A total of 660 people have been interrogated so far on remand in connection with the incident while 95 people have made confessional statements under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Our staff correspondent in Sylhet adds: The Sylhet Chief Judicial Magistrate sent the arrested 140 BDR jawans to prison after they were produced before it yesterday.
The arrests were made after a Sylhet court issued warrant against 142 BDR jawans following filing of three sedition cases against them.
A total of 1,721 BDR jawans have been arrested so far in 29 districts outside Dhaka.
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