DHAKA, Bangladesh – An international rights group said Wednesday it has found serious human rights abuses in the mass trials of Bangladesh paramilitary border guards accused of participating in a 2009 mutiny, including the deaths of at least 47 defendants from maltreatment.
Human Rights Watch said in a report that the violations included widespread beatings and electric shocks. About 3,000 border guards are currently on trial in the mutiny, in which 74 people including 57 military commanders died.
The New York-based group's Asia director, Brad Adams, called the process "fundamentally flawed" and said suspects have been interrogated in secret locations by security agencies.
"The government must close all unofficial and secret places of detention," he said.
Bangladeshi officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Home Minister Shahara Khatun has previously denied all allegations of human rights violations during the trials.
The Feb. 25-26, 2009, mutiny occurred two months after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office. The influential military was unhappy over the response of the government, which did not allow the military to attack the border guards' headquarters in Dhaka where military commanders were killed.
Hasina initially offered an amnesty to the mutineers to quell the revolt but later withdrew the offer when dozens of bodies were found in sewers and in mass graves.
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