David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Police in Bangladesh have charged 824 people for the massacre of 74 senior military officers during a mutiny by border guards in February last year.   All suspects could face the death penalty if found guilty.

Seventy-four people, including 57 senior army officers, were killed during the siege of a military base in Dhaka, the capital, in an uprising that briefly threatened the government of Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister.

Prosecutors announced the charges on Monday and the trials against the mutiny’s ringleaders and participants are expected to take at least one year to complete in Bangladesh’s civil courts.

“We have charged 824 people with murder, conspiracy, aiding and abetting murder, looting military weapons and arson,” Mosharraf Hossain Kazal, the state prosecutor, said.

Rebelling soldiers were allegedly angry about their superiors’ refusal to increase their pay and improve working conditions.

“They mowed their officers down in cold blood, using semi-automatic weapons and rifles they’d looted from the barracks,” Akhand, the police investigator, said of  mutineers who took control of BDR headquarters on February 25, 2009.

The violence has spread nationwide and Bangladesh appeared to be on the brink of civil war.

The case will be handled by Bangladesh’s civil courts in what will be the largest trial in the country’s history.

In parallel prosecutions, some 3,500 soldiers who had joined the rebellion are being tried in military courts on lesser charges.

At least 200 guards have already been convicted by the tribunals with jail sentences ranging from four months to seven years.

The mutiny erupted at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka and lasted 33 hours, during which officers were killed and their bodies dumped in sewers and shallow graves.

“A senior officer was taken to the roof of a four-storey building and thrown to the ground. The dead bodies of a few officers were set on fire.”

The mutiny took place just two months after the country returned to civilian rule under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

She had originally offered an amnesty to some mutineers but this was rescinded when the extent and nature of the bloodshed became clear.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Bangladesh charges 824 people over deadly mutiny – 12 July 2010

Al Jazeera English – More charged over Bangladesh mutiny  – 12 July 2010

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Bangladesh charges 824 for deadly munity murders – 12 July 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – Wen Qiang, 55, former director of the Chongqing Justice Bureau in the Chongqing region and highest ranking official also an ex-deputy police chief, was sentenced to death in April on massive corruption charges, for sponsoring and protecting five gangs as well as rape and taking bribes.

He was executed in Chongqing, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday.

Wen’s case was part of a huge operation that exposed illegal activities in Chongqing, a city of more than 30 million people, as well as highlighting China’s problem of rampant official corruption.

The crackdown resulted in more than 3,300 detentions and hundreds of prosecutions, including the trials of nearly 100 officials.  Several people have already reportedly been executed or sentenced to death in the trials.

Wen allegedly raped a number of women including film and music personalities, as well as having affairs with subordinates.

He was also found guilty of taking more than 12 million yuan ($2 million U.S.) in bribes and engaging in a range of corrupt activities.

At his trial in February, Wen admitted he took money from others on numerous occasions but said that no corruption was involved and much of it was for “birthday and New Year” greetings, according to state media.

Wen was tried with his wife, Zhou Xiaoya, and three former Chongqing police associates, all of whom received jail sentences of up to 20 years.

Last November, Wen’s sister-in-law Xie Caiping was sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of running illegal gambling venues and drug dealing.

The crackdown is widely seen as a bid by Bo Xilai – who was appointed Communist Party secretary in Chongqing in 2007 – to move up in the national hierarchy via political maneuvering.

The corruption trials, covered extensively by Chinese media, have transfixed the nation and rallied Chongqing residents, who claim they are fed up with being bullied by their own local officials.

“Only capital punishment will serve him right. He deserves to be killed a thousand times,” one person commented online about Wen in February.

“The Wen Qiang case is only the tip of the iceberg,” another wrote. “If China wants more rapid development, there should be a purge to wipe out all the corrupted officials in Communist Party.”  Analysts said a harsh crackdown on corruption was vital to maintaining public faith in the Communist leadership.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Ex-Chinese official executed for corruption – 7 July 2010

BBC – China rejects police official Wen Qiang death appeal – 21 May 2010

Al Jazeera English – China ‘executes’ justice official -7 July 2010

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter; Asia

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The death toll climbed to 50 on Friday after a pair of suicide bombers detonated their explosive vests at one of Pakistan’s holiest shrines, police said.  Police are on high alert in Pakistan as demands grow for a tougher crackdown on armed religious groups in the central Punjab province after bombers targeted a popular Muslim shrine.

The targeted shrine was that of an 11th century Sufi saint, Ali bin Usman, commonly known as Data Ganj Bakhsh Hajveri, who traveled throughout the region spreading Islam with a message of peace and love.  His shrine is the most revered and popular of Sufi shrines in the nation.

More than 200 people were injured in the blasts outside the Data Darbar, a famous Sufi shrine complex.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan expressed alarm over the attacks and called on both the government and Muslim clerics to stand up to extremism.

Security has been tightened at Sufi shrines across the country, but many Pakistanis, already frustrated by a troubled economy and crippling power cuts, are calling for the resignation of Punjab government officials.

About 2,000 people, some armed, staged protests in Lahore on Friday, shouting “Down with Shahbaz Sharif”, the chief minister of Punjab

“This sickening poison of extremism will be driven out of our nation and we will not be cowed,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, a spokeswoman for President Asif Ali Zardari, in a text message to CNN.

“Peaceful worshippers have once again been targeted by those who want to destroy the fabric of this great country.  We will not forgive or forget and we will get justice for all Pakistanis murdered in cold blood — be they Muslim, Christian, Ahmadi or of any other faith.”

Talat Masood, a defence analyst and former Pakistan military officer, said Taliban-linked groups are exploiting the uncertainty over the government’s response to such attacks.

“At the moment there is lukewarm support from the people, and the people have no confidence in the government and their governance,” he told Al Jazeera on Friday.

“America is killing Muslims in Afghanistan and in our tribal areas, and militants are attacking Pakistan to express anger against the government for supporting America,” explained Zahid Umar, 25, a frequent visitor to the Lahore shrine.

For more information, please see: 

Al Jazeera English – Pakistan on alert after shrine raid – 2 July 2010

CNN World – Explosions at famous shrine in Pakistan kill dozens – 2 July 2010

The Huffington Post – Pakistanis Blame U.S. After Shrine Suicide Attack Kills 42 – 2 July 2010

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

KASHMIR, India – The killings of civilian protesters, most of them teenagers, have angered many in the valley.  One newspaper headline described 2010 as the “year of teenage killings” in Kashmir. 

Even the pro-India People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the government of declaring war on its own people, our correspondent reports.

Hundreds of thousands of troops are based in Kashmir to fight a two-decade insurgency against Indian rule.

The three deaths on Tuesday mean that there have been 10 civilian deaths at the hands of the security forces this month in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The protests have been some of the biggest in two years.  The latest violence began with the death of a schoolboy on June 11.

“When incidents like this happen, when innocents get killed, people get provoked,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the leader of the Separatist Hurriyet Conference, told Al Jazeera.

Local people and the state government have blamed most of those deaths on the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

They say that in many cases the CRPF – who have been described by the state government as “trigger happy” – fired on unarmed protesters.

On Tuesday the army said it killed five militants who were trying to cross the Line of Control which divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.  The army said that three soldiers also died in the gunbattle on Monday night and Sunday afternoon in the Nowgam area.

Shops, schools and colleges in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley are shut on the fourth day of the curfew, the BBC’s Altaf Hussain in Srinagar reports.  The strike has been called in protest at the recent killing of unarmed civilians by police and paramilitary troops.  Five towns – Sopore, Anantnag, Mattan, Kulgam and Koimoh – and some areas of Srinagar have been placed under curfew.

Nearly 20 civilians died in clashes with security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir in June.  Many of the deaths have been blamed on the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

On Wednesday Chief Minister Omar Abdullah defended the security forces, saying they could not be expected constantly to show restraint when they were so often pelted with stones.

Anti-India sentiment runs deep in Muslim-majority Kashmir, over which India and Pakistan both claim sovereignty and have fought two wars.

The authorities have re-imposed a curfew in the northern town of Sopore, where protesters clashed with the police until late on Monday night.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Civilians killed in renewed Kashmir violence – 29 June 2010

Al Jazeera English – Deadly clashes continue in Kashmir – 29 June 2010

CNN World – 4 dead, 5 wounded in Kashmir fighting – 25 June 2010