Dhaka:
Bangladesh on Sunday set up six "special courts" to try the suspected rebellious soldiers for
the bloody mutiny by the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) that led to the massacre of 67 army officers.
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) constituted six "special courts" headed by its Director General Major General Mainul Islam to try the soldiers linked to the February 25-26 mutiny, just two months after the installation of the new government following the landmark December 29, 2008 parliamentary polls.
"The two special courts in Dhaka, four others outside Dhaka were constituted today, November 15, 2009, under Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972 to start the trial of BDR mutiny that took place at different BDR installations in the country including the Peelkhana of Dhaka on February 25-26," the border force said in a statement.
The BDR chief and two other BDR officers, holding the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel and a Major, would comprise the courts while a representative of the Attorney General would assist them, it said.
"These (six) courts will try the (ordinary) BDR mutiny alone," the statement said, in an apparent reference to the earlier government decision to try the massacre culprits in tough Speedy Trial Tribunal and the ordinary mutineers in the BDR courts under relatively lenient BDR Act.
The six courts would operate in different areas of the country on the basis of the geographic locations of the installations of the paramilitary force where the rebellion had erupted, according to the statement.