Momena Khatun, mother of one of the army officers killed during the Pilkhana carnage, is in her eighties. She has nothing much to expect from life except that she wants to see the killers of her son executed before her death.
“I am counting my days until the final hours of my life. If I could see the killers of my son executed, it would at least give me some consolation,” Momena said, wiping her tears.
She came to the Banani Army Graveyard yesterday, the sixth BDR carnage anniversary, where her beloved son Col Moazzem Hossain was laid to rest in peace with other slain army officers.
The mutiny that came with ruthless savagery on February 25-26 in 2009 at Pilkhana Headquarters of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles, now Border Guard Bangladesh, left 74 people including 57 army officers brutally killed.
Parents, wives, siblings and relatives of the slain officers visited the graveyard and observed the day in tears. They offered prayers seeking eternal peace for the departed souls.
Like Momena, families of many other victims also want to see the killers executed soon as it would heal their wounds a bit.
A special court in November 2013 awarded death penalty to 150 BDR jawans and 2 civilians and different terms of imprisonment to 423 people in the Pilkhana carnage case. Almost all of those sentenced were BDR soldiers.
Appeals were made to the High Court challenging the verdicts.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam recently told The Daily Star that it would take the higher courts at least two years to finish all the legal procedures to pave the way for the killers’ execution.
Sanjana Sonia Jobaida, widow of Maj Momin, came with her only son Sadakat Sabri Bin Momin. Sadakat was born two months after his father had been killed.
Jobaida too wanted a quick execution of the killers within the tenure of this government.
“Sadakat knows his father only through his photographs,” she said.
She however expressed her discontent saying, “We are yet to know who masterminded the heinous killings.”
Kahinoor Khanam, 62, mother of slain Maj Mizanur Rahman, said she wanted a quick execution of her son’s killers.
“During the nine months of our Liberation War I had to hide behind wild undergrowth carrying Mizan in my womb while my husband went to fight against the Pakistan occupation forces,” she said with her eyes filled with tears.
“My son has been killed on the very soil for which his father had fought risking his life,” she said, adding the question whether if this was the reward for her husband’s contribution as a freedom fighter.
Kahinoor said days into her son’s death, her husband had fallen sick and died after nine months. Faced with a financial hardship, now she could not even manage Tk 6,000 required per month to buy her medicines.
Earlier in the morning, representatives of the president, the prime minister, the state minister for home along with chiefs of three defence services and the director general of BGM placed floral wreaths at the graveyard to pay tribute to the slain army personnel. JP Chairman HM Ershad also placed a wreath at their graveyard.
Source: The Daily Star
