RANGAMATI,Bangladesh, Nov 25 (BSS) - The prosecution today demanded
"highest punishment" for rebellious Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers as nine of the accused border guards were served with copies of chargesheets a day after the trial began at a paramilitary court in the southeastern Rangamati district.

"I demand the highest punishment for the accused under the BDR Act," chief prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Habibul Karim told the four-member court headed by paramilitary force's chief Major General Mainul Islam as the suspects appeared the dock under heavy security escorts and were served with the chargesheets.

Some 2,000 BDR soldiers across the country are exposed to trial under the BDR Act as they extended supports to the February 25-26 mutiny at their Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka where 57 army officers who were serving the paramilitary force were killed along with 17 others.

They were detained in 29 frontier districts outside Dhaka for staging the mutiny, breaking in arsenals and looting weapons at the BDR sector or battalion headquarters as the rebellion broke out at their central Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka, where another some 2,000 soldiers await trial on massacre charges under tough Speedy Trial Tribunal under civil penal code.

Under a government decision the ordinary mutineers would be tried under relatively lenient BDR Act which prescribes the highest seven years of imprisonment while the soldiers involved in killings and looting at Pilkhana would face death penalties in the civil court.

The trial began yesterday at a BDR installation in Rangamati as a BDR statement earlier this month announced constitution of six special courts, two to sit in Dhaka and four others outside the capital under Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972 to try the mutineers who did not take part in the killings or looting while the BDR chief would chair all the courts.

The court allowed the nine accused soldiers 27 days to prepare their defence lines saying they could seek the assistance of BDR officers or independent lawyers.

During the brief 15-minute proceedings, the court-that comprised a lieutenant colonel, a major and a representative of the attorney general - also asked the accused if they were exposed to any misbehavior in captivity as five of them were kept in Rangamati jail and four others at the Rangamati's Longadu- based BDR's 12 Battalion Headquarters, one of the scene of the mutiny.

The other members of the court are deputy attorney general Mohammad Sarwardy, Lieutenant Colonel Abdur Rauf and Major Golam Mostafa Mamun.

The five who came from the jail were attired in civil dress, but the court ordered all the accused to appear in BDR uniforms without waist belts during the next hearings since they `still are in service.

The court was adjourned until December 27 when the accused are likely to be indicted formally. The government has appointed several criminal lawyers as prosecutors including Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, a state lawyer of the Bangabandhu Murder Trial.

The complainant of the case against the nine BDR's deputy assistant director Reazuddin Ahmed, himself an upgraded BDR soldier, yesterday said the accused tried to provoke the fellow soldiers to join the mutiny and intimidated the military officers serving the paramilitary force along with their family members as the mutineers staged the rebellion at Pilkhana.

Then the chief prosecutor, Lieutenant Colonel Habibul Karim, who is also the commanding officer of 12 Rifles Battalion, said the "offenders deserve punishment as they committed unpardonable crime."

The BDR chief who was reached by BSS over phone yesterday said the trial of the mutineers in five other courts will also continue simultaneously and during the trial in one court the proceedings in five others will be adjourned.

Under the law of the paramilitary border force, an accused can defend himself and also could take help from a BDR official or a lawyer but they would not be allowed to plead in the BDR court in usual manner.

The February mutiny had shattered the country just two months after the installation of the new government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after the landmark December 29, 2008 general elections.

The rebellious soldiers at that time claimed a sense of "deprivation" that prompted them to stage the mutiny demanding the frontier force should be freed from "military domination" as they also killed eight civilians, eight fellow BDR soldiers and an army soldier apart from the 57 army officers.

Officials earlier said over 2,000 BDR soldiers were detained in 29 frontier districts for staging the mutiny, breaking in arsenals and looting weapons as the rebellion broke out in Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka, where another some 2,000 soldiers await trial for mutiny or massacre.

But under a government decision the massacre culprits would be tried in fast track Speedy Trial Tribunal as the Supreme Court earlier negated a suggestion to try them under Army Act in response to a presidential reference.

Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday said the trial for the killings at the BDR headquarters would be launched soon as the trial of the ordinary mutineers who did not take part in the killings started today.

"Many army officials were killed during the carnage. The trial for the BDR mutiny began today and I hope the trial for the BDR killings will also begin soon," she said while addressing an international conference on terrorism here.

Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which was tasked with carrying out the routine police investigation into the case earlier said over 1,900 BDR soldiers who were stationed at their Pilkhana headquarters on February 25-26 were arrested for their suspected involvement in the mutiny or massacre and most of them were quizzed in custody.

Some 30 civilians including a former lawmaker of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) were also arrested so far for their suspected involvement in the mutiny or supports for the rebellion.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently gave her consent for reforms in the mutiny-hit BDR, renaming it as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) with a new combat uniform.