BDR Mutiny
Govt team did not know of carnage on first day
Quamrul tells court
A government delegation meant for negotiating with the BDR mutineers could not figure out the bloodshed in Pilkhana even when the rebels surrendered some arms on the first night of the 2009 mutiny, State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam told a court yesterday.
The team comprising ministers and police high officials learned about the mass killing of army officers only during their second visit the next day on February 26.
Quamrul, who was in the government team, said the mutineers took the government delegates into Pilkhana on the night of February 25 and laid down some 15-20 arms, promising to surrender the rest the next morning.
After the surrender, the delegates rushed to the prime minister's residence Jamuna to tell her what they saw inside Pilkhana, he said in his deposition to the Metropolitan Sessions Judges' Court set up at the capital's Bakshibazar to try the BDR carnage case.
The next morning the jawans began showing a dilly-dally approach to surrender, and the delegation had to wait till evening to take control of Pilkhana, he added.
"We finally realised that the surrendering of the arms was nothing but a drama when we found bodies of the slain officers," he said. They staged the "surrender drama" to send the government team back, he added.
The state minister was also cross-examined yesterday. When asked if the prime minister announced general amnesty to the mutineers after knowing all that happened inside, he said the premier then did not know about the carnage.
Seventy-four people, including 57 army officers, were killed in the February 25-26 mutiny at Philkhana headquarters of the erstwhile BDR.
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