Death penalty set for mutiny offenders in Bangladesh's new border guards law

The Bangladeshi cabinet Monday approved a draft act which sets death as the maximum penalty for those who will stage mutiny in the country's border security force.

The regular meeting of the cabinet with Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina in the chair Monday approved the draft Border Guards Bangladesh Act 2010, PM's Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad told reporters.

Once the act is passed in the parliament, he said the paramilitary force will be renamed Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) instead of currently Bangladesh Rifles (BDR).

Apart from this, Azad said the border guards under the new law will get a new insignia and new uniform of black, maroon and ash instead of the present olive-maroon colors.

The Bangladeshi cabinet in March this year approved the draft act in principle and formed a high-powered committee for final scrutiny of the proposed Border Guards Bangladesh Act 2010.

The Bangladeshi government has taken the move of formulating the new law for the border guards after a bloody mutiny in the force in Feb. 25-26, 2009 which left 74 people dead including 57 officers deputed from the Army. BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmed was also killed in the carnage.

The draft law also suggests a new organogram, new command structure and tougher promotion conditions for paramilitary soldiers.

The draft law, which will further toughen penalties for crimes committed by border guards, includes a provision of death penalty for mutiny, or disobedience in the field by border guards.

The existing maximum penalty under the BDR law is seven years in jail.

However, the country's Criminal Investigation Department Monday submitted a charge sheet in the BDR mutiny case, accusing around 824 border guards and civilians of murder, looting, arson and hiding bodies in mass graves.

The Bangladeshi government had already decided to try the accused for offenses like killings, attempt to murder, looting and arson committed during the Feb. 25-26 mutiny, at the speedy trial tribunal under the penal code.

Other offenses like breach of discipline and defying superiors' orders at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka and other stations of the force across the country are being tried under the BDR laws.

The maximum punishment under the penal code is death while under the BDR laws it is seven years' imprisonment.

During the mutiny, nearly 8,000 BDR personnel were present at the headquarters of the paramilitary force which, with around 67, 000 members, is guarding the South Asian country's long border line of 4,427 km with India and Myanmar.

Source: Xinhua