Pilkhana carnage: BDR 27 members granted bail

Twenty-seven former members of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) were granted bail and released from Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur in connection with a case filed under the Explosive Substances Act related to the 2009 Pilkhana carnage.

They were released from the jail around 10.00am today (May 15), according to the jail authorities.

Additional Metropolitan Judge Ibrahim Mia granted bail to the former BDR members on Monday.

With this, a total of 178 former BDR members have now been granted bail in the case.

Mohammad AL Mamun, jail superintendent of Kashimpur Central Jail part-1, said, "The bail order of the accused was reached at the jail gate on Tuesday afternoon."

On 25 and 26 February 2009, 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed in a mutiny at the Border Guard Headquarters in Pilkhana.

On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka court sentenced 150 BDR members and two civilians to death, and life imprisonment to 160 others in the Pilkhana murder case. Later, on November 27, 2017, the High Court upheld the death sentences of 139 out of the 152 convicts.