Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inspecting a guard of honour parade by BGB personnel in Dhaka yesterday.

By Mizan Rahman
Dhaka
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday told Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel to remain alert so that incident like the 2009 BDR mutiny does not recur in future.
“BGB has turned into a dynamic and modern force with the sincere efforts of all. Through your hard labour, the reputation and dignity of this force have been restored … you must stay alert so that such suicidal incident cannot take place in the future,” she said.
The prime minister was addressing the formal parade of BGB Day-2015 held at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka.
Terming the mutiny and killings at Peelkhana on February 25-26, 2009 as a black chapter of this force, Sheikh Hasina said she had to face the heinous and unstable situation like BDR mutiny and killings soon after assuming office and tackled it with the united efforts of the BGB members.
An estimated 59 military officials were killed by rebellious border security force inside the headquarters in 2009.
Mentioning that the BGB is now fully free from its stigma following the trial of its unruly and misleading personnel involved in the mutiny, she asked the BGB personnel to discharge their duties with utmost honesty and patriotism and thus gain the confidence and trust of people.
The Prime Minister said BGB has a tradition of long 220 years and its members have showed bigger success in recent years in border areas with significant reduction in goods and drug smuggling, women and children trafficking and other border crimes.
Border killings have come down with the strengthening of friendship between BGB with BSF in recent years, she noted.
Hasina said the professionalism and role of BGB in various nation-building activities, including facing natural disasters, helping civil administration maintain law and order, are being praised by all.
Earlier, the prime minister inspected the parade riding an open jeep and took salute at the Bir Uttam Anwar Hossain Parade Ground at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka’s Peelkhana area with Deputy Director General of BGB Akhter Hamid Khan as the parade commander.
Highlighting various steps of her government for modernising BGB, she said the Border Security Bureau has been set up for strengthening the intelligence agency of the BGB, four new sectors and four regional intelligence bureau have been set up, some 13 battalions have already been set up out of the newly approved 15 battalions while the remaining two battalions would be in place in the next fiscal year.
Hasina said some 100 female soldiers have been recruited to BGB this year for the first time while work for creating own air wing of BGB is going on in full swing to increase the operational capacity of this force.
Earlier, on her arrival at the venue, the prime minster was received by Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and BGB Director General Major General Aziz Ahmed.