Dhaka, Feb 25 (AHN) Bangladesh's Awami League on Wednesday paid homage to those who lost their lives in the 2009 Pilkhana massacre and called for an end to "political exploitation" of the incident.

Slamming the previous interim regime, the party highlighted that the former Muhammad Yunus-led administration had acquitted 293 convicted individuals linked to the 2009 Pilkhana massacre that killed 74 people, including army officers and civilians.

Marking the anniversary of the incident on Wednesday, the Awami League remembered the lives lost in the February 25, 2009, Pilkhana tragedy, calling it the "mutiny within Bangladesh's border guard force".

Several hundred Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) men rose in an armed revolt at the Darbar Hall of the force's Pilkhana headquarters during the three-day "BDR Week" on February 25, 2009. They killed 57 army officers and 17 civilians.

The Awami League stated that soon after assuming office following a landslide electoral victory in December 2008, the Sheikh Hasina-led government faced the "planned and brutal attack", which it said was "designed to push the country toward civil conflict and destabilise the newly formed administration".

However, the party noted, under Hasina's "skilled and strategic" leadership, "the mutineers eventually surrendered their arms and released the hostages, bringing the rebellion to an end".

The investigation, prosecution and trial of this tragic massacre began promptly, through what the party described as a "transparent judicial process".

It mentioned that in 2013, the trial court sentenced 152 accused to death, 160 to life imprisonment, and 256 to varying prison terms. Later, in 2017, the High Court upheld death sentences for 139 individuals, life imprisonment for 185, and different terms for 228 others.

However, following the ouster of the Awami League government, the interim government authorised the release of hundreds of former BDR members involved in the massacre.

The Awami League described the actions of the former Yunus-led interim government to release 293 convicted individuals as "unjust", while alleging that the call for reinvestigation and the formation of a new inquiry committee were "politically motivated".

According to the party, the National Independent Commission, formed in December 2024 by the interim government to investigate the killings during the 2009 BDR mutiny, submitted a report last year, which has yet to be made public, while many convicted individuals have reportedly been released.

It called the move an attempt to "undermine the judicial process and shift responsibility for the tragedy onto the party".

Expressing sympathy for the families of the victims, the Awami League called for "trust in Bangladesh's criminal justice system" and urged an end to "political exploitation of the Pilkhana incident".