8 ex-BDR members released on bail in Pilkhana explosives case
Jail Superintendent Abdullah Al Mamun of the high-security prison confirmed the matter and said the release was granted after proper verification of court-issued bail orders.
Eight former members of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) have been released on bail in a case filed under the Explosives Substances Act over the 2009 mutiny.
They were released from the high-security unit and Part-2 of Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur today (1 May).
Jail Superintendent Abdullah Al Mamun of the high-security prison confirmed the matter and said the release was granted after proper verification of court-issued bail orders.
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He added that the inmates were freed as there were no other pending detention orders against them.
Among those freed, one had been held in the high-security unit, while the remaining seven were detained in Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2.
Halima Khatun, jail superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2, said one inmate was released in the morning and six more in the afternoon, bringing the total to seven from her facility. Family members gathered at the prison gate to receive their relatives after a long wait.
The incident occurred in 2009, when a brutal mutiny took place at the then BDR headquarters in the capital's Pilkhana. The violence resulted in the deaths of 74 people, including 57 army officers.
Two separate cases were filed over the incident – one for murder and another under the Explosives Substances Act.
On 5 November 2013, the court delivered its verdict in the murder case, sentencing 152 individuals to death, 160 to life imprisonment, and 256 to various jail terms, while acquitting 278 accused. Proceedings in the explosives case are still ongoing.
