A Bangladesh military court jailed more than 650 border guards Monday for their role in a 2009 mutiny, bringing the total number of soldiers imprisoned for the unrest to nearly 3,000. “In Bangladesh’s history, this verdict is unprecedented — we have never had a case where this many people have been convicted at once,” state prosecutor Shahnewaz Tipu said. “A total of 667 guards of the 24th battalion were charged. One died during the trial and nine were acquitted. Among the 657 who were jailed, 108 guards got the highest prison term of seven years,” Tipu told AFP. At least 57 senior army officers were killed in the 33-hour uprising that began when soldiers at the Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka went on a killing spree, later dumping the bodies in sewers and shallow graves. The court, headed by Major General Rafiqual Islam, the BDR’s top officer, took three hours to read out the sentences against the 657 border guards, all of whom were present in a specially-built courtroom in central Dhaka. The mutiny spread to BDR posts across the country, with thousands of guards taking up arms against their commanding officers in the worst military rebellion in Bangladesh’s history. Dozens of special courts — run by the military using a mix of martial and civil law — were set up to prosecute mutineers, with the first verdict convicting 29 soldiers being handed down in April 2010.
