Editorial
End of a long wait
Now the trial should deliver justice
WE note with a sense of relief, as most people in the country, we believe, do that after about nine months since the BDR carnage, the government is finally able to hold a trial on it. After a long period of animated suspense, the public are in a position to feel that a headway has been made in responding to the demand for trial and that it should be taken to its logical and purposeful end.
The interregnum between that most heinous crime perpetrated by members of a statutory force on army officers in their command and their near and dear ones, admittedly, was something of a roller-coaster ride for the nation much as the carnage itself was a blot to the nation's conscience. To put things in perspective, the intervening period was marked by long-drawn-out investigations and seeking of opinion from the highest judiciary on whether the trial should be conducted under the Army Act or the BDR Act or the civil law.
The government finally settling for the mutiny part to be tried under the BDR Act and the murder, arson and looting under the civil law, the process of trial has commenced. It is for the first part that the trial is being held now in special courts. As for the killings, arson and looting to be tried under civil law, investigations are still going on.
Now the nation expects that justice will be done to those murdered in the despicable carnage and their aggrieved near and dear ones, and speedily too. Their losses are beyond consolation and redemption, but at least they will know that the perpetrators have been brought to justice. The second point we would like to make and this is an overarching imperative that the trial be held fairly, transparently and impartially, so that it meets the standards of due process of law. Not only the nation but outside world too would be looking at the trial and the manner in which the process is conducted. That much is in stake here.
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