Bangladesh Rifles revolt | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Bangladesh Rifles mutineers | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 1,200 mutineers | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
57 killed,[1] 6 missing[2] | 8 killed,[2] 200 captured[3] | ||||||
17 civilians killed[4] |
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First Premiership (1996–2001) Opposition Leader (2001–2009) Second Premiership (2009–2024)
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The Bangladesh Rifles revolt (also referred to as the Pilkhana tragedy) was a mutiny staged on 25 and 26 February 2009 in Dhaka by a section of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), a paramilitary force mainly tasked with guarding the borders of Bangladesh. The rebelling BDR soldiers took over the BDR headquarters in Pilkhana, killing BDR director-general Shakil Ahmed along with 56 other army officers and 17 civilians. They also fired on civilians, held many of their officers and their families hostage, vandalised property and looted valuables.[5] By the second day, unrest had spread to 12 other towns and cities.[6][7] The mutiny ended as the mutineers surrendered their arms and released the hostages[8] after a series of discussions and negotiations with the government.[9] The Daily Star commended “Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sagacious handling of the situation which resulted in the prevention of a further bloodbath".[10][11][12]
On 5 November 2013, 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 court also acquitted 277 people who had been charged. The trials have been condemned as unfair mass trials without timely access to lawyers and "seem designed to satisfy a desire for cruel revenge", as charged by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights.[13][14]
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