BDR becomes BGB

From daily Sun, Bangladesh

Operates Under New LawThe mutiny-maimed Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is finally reborn as Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) as President Zillur Rahman signed the new law to this effect.

With tougher provisions stipulated in the law, the Border Guard Bangladesh Act 2010 will be effective from 23 December.

Commander of 24 Rifle Battalion Lt Col Shamsur Rahman disclosed this at a press conference after hearing on a case Tuesday.

“The president Monday assented to the bill that transformed BDR into BGB, changing its logo and making death penalty as the maximum punishment for mutiny,” he told reporters.

Col Shamsur Rahman, however, said the trial of the BDR mutiny would be carried out under the existing BDR law. “But any crime committed after 23 December will be tried under the new law,” he informed the journalists.

Earlier on 8 December, parliament had passed the Border Guard Bangladesh Bill 2010 aimed at building up an efficient border security force by reorganising the mutiny-ridden BDR.

The bill was passed as Home Minister Sahara Khatun proposed its enactment for the sake of speeding up the trial of BDR mutineers, accused of killing of 74 people, including 57 army officers, at the Pilkhana headquarters last year.

On 6 December, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Ministry placed its report on ‘The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Bill 2010’.

On 20 September, the home minister piloted the bill proposing maximum penalty as death sentence for grave offences that was previously only seven years imprisonment under the BDR Act.

Sahara Khatun earlier had said that the bill was formulated annulling the existing Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972 and Bangladesh Rifles (Special Provisions) Ordinance 1976.

The new law sets 13 types of punishment, including death sentence and life imprisonment.

It will also empower the additional director-general-level officers to try offenders.

As per the new law, three types of Border Guard courts—Special Border Guard Court, Special Summary Border Guard Court and Summary Border Guard Court—will be created for trying different types of offences.

The director-general or a regional commander authorised by the director-general will head the Special Border Guard Court, which is authorised to award any punishment stipulated in the bill.

An officer of deputy director-general level will be able to lead the Special Summary Border Guard Court, which is authorised to award up to five years in jail or other sorts of light punishment.

The Summary Border Guard Court will be headed at least by an additional director-general and can hand down one-year jail.

There will also be an appeal body styled “Border Guard Appeal Tribunal” before which the convicted persons can appeal for reconsideration of the punishment awarded by the border-guard courts.

The convicts, as per the new law, cannot appeal to any civilian courts, including the Supreme Court, against the verdicts of the border-guard courts or of the border-guard appeal tribunal.

—Banglanews
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