BDR Carnage Trial

Witnesses narrate murder of two officers

29 December 2011, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Two witnesses to the 2009 carnage at the Pilkhana BDR headquarters narrated before a Dhaka court yesterday how mutineers tortured and killed Lt Col Luthfor Rahman and Major Dr Mamun. The two witnesses, Sepoy Rakibul Islam and Lt Col Asif Abdur Rouf, gave the makeshift court in the city's Government Alia Madrasa playground a vivid picture of the atrocities committed during the two day carnage. Rakibul said he hid inside the storeroom of the Sainik Lines in Pilkhana once the mutiny broke out in the morning of February 25 and came out after deciding to go home. But on coming out, he saw some jawans including lance nayek Mozammel Hossain and sepoys Uttam Barua, Shamim Al Mamun Jewel and Tarequl Islam dragging and beating Major Mamun. “At one point they took him to the north-west corner of Sainik Mess where nayeb subedar Islam Uddin ordered shooting him,” Rakibul said. When the defence lawyers, during cross-examination, accused Rakibul of giving false statements for personal gains, the witness denied the accusations. The Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, Dhaka later recorded Lt Col Asif's deposition where he said the rebels hit him with a rifle butt, causing serious injuries, and later confined him to the quarter guard. While being taken to the quarter guard, he saw some jawans led by subedar major Gofran Mallik dragging and beating commander of 24 Rifles Battalion Lt Col Luthfor. Later, he came to know that the officer had been murdered. During his confinement, sepoy Sohel tried several times to bring him out and kill him but failed as he did not have the key, added Lt Col Asif. “Sohel tried to take revenge by killing me as I had punished him earlier on a charge of stealing fish from a pond,” he continued. The court then adjourned the proceedings till January 4. Defence lawyers will cross-examine Lt Col Asif when the court resumes. Earlier in the day, defence counsels completed the cross-examination of Major Abdullah Al Mamun. A total of 57 senior and mid-ranking army officers, including the then BDR director general, were killed along with 17 others during the carnage.