'I wish I was dead too': BDR mutiny victims recall tragic day, issue 7-point demand

"I wish I was dead. Instead of 57 officers, it should have been 58," Lt Col (Retd) Syed Quamruzzaman said today (17 August) at a press conference before a solemn crowd. 

Families of the victims of the BDR carnage in Pilkhana and the victims themselves gathered at Dhaka's Mohakhali in the press conference where they made an appeal to the interim government to address their seven-point demand for ensuring justice, transparency, and recognition of the martyrs.

At the conference, they recounted the horrifying hours and the impact it had left on their lives. 

"Every day, I suffer. For 15 years, I have been suffering. The loss of my batchmates, friends, and colleagues haunts me. Despite being alive, the suffering didn't end," Quamruzzaman said.

Hannan, son of Major Nurul Islam, one of the martyred officers, said, "The sin of my father was that he was trying to save other soldiers. Because of that, my family and I suffered a lot. Even to get government facilities, we had to go to the High Court and fight for it."

Chalking out their demands in a draft, they asked that all the reports of the earlier investigations be made public, an inquiry commission be formed to unmask the conspirators, that 25 February be declared as Martyred Army Day with befitting status given to those who died and that the national flag be kept at half-mast on the day throughout the country.

They demanded that the Pilkhana tragedy be included in textbooks, army personnel sacked over the incident be reinstated or given proper compensation. 

They also urged the government that no innocent BDR personnel should be punished. 

Talking exclusively to The Business Standard, Nehrin Ferdousi, the wife of slain Col Mujibul Haque, who was the BDR Dhaka Sector commander in 2009, said, "We want transparent justice and recognition from the government." 

Recalling the last moments of her husband, she said, "I heard from a witness that they stabbed my husband with a bayonet in the belly several times, shot him, and later threw him from the third floor of a building. His body was later found in a drain at Kamrangirchar, and I received his body from the Combined Military Hospital morgue."

Dr Rowshon, widow of Lt Col Lutfer Rahman Khan, also shared her experience. 

"I received my husband's body after three days. They shot him so many times," she said. 

"When I called him during the gunshots, all I heard was, 'Lie down, lie down.' That was not my husband's voice. Then, he cut the call. 

"A few minutes later, when I called him again to check up on him, all he said was, 'Please stay at home. Don't dare go outside'. That was the last time I heard his voice," she said.

The Pilkhana tragedy took place on 25 February 2009. 

It was led by a section of the then Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force mainly tasked with guarding the borders of Bangladesh. 

Rebelling BDR soldiers took over the BDR headquarters in the capital's Pilkhana over a slew of grievances. 

They killed 57 army officers, including the-then BDR director-general Shakil Ahmed and 17 civilians. 

In 2013, the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court sentenced 152 people to death and 161 to life imprisonment; another 256 people received sentences between three and ten years for their involvement in the mutiny. 

The trial has come under some criticism for a perceived lack of fairness, with the UN rights commissioner Navi Pillay saying it had "failed to meet the most fundamental standards of due process."