Dhaka: The High Court on Sunday observed that a vested quarter had wanted to destroy a skilled and trained force through the Pilkhana BDR mutiny to destablise the country and jeopardise its economic and social security.

Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique came up with the observation while delivering verdict in the death reference and appeals filed by 152 convicts against the death penalty in the Pilkhana BDR mutiny case.

He also described the BDR mutiny as an unprecedented incident in the history of the world.

A three-member HC bench comprising Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder started reading out the verdict on the death reference and appeals of the convicts in the case at 10:55 am.

Later, it postponed the reading out of the verdict till Monday morning.

Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder will start reading out the rest of the verdict from 11:30am on Monday. Later, the verdict will be pronounced.

Earlier on April 3 last, a three-member special HC bench, led by Justice Shawkat Hossain, kept the verdict as Curia Advisari Vult (CAV) after concluding the hearing on the appeals and the death reference.

A Dhaka court on November 5, 2013 sentenced 152 soldiers of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles and two civilians to death, and 161 others to life imprisonment for their involvement in the BDR mutiny.

A total of 257 appeals were filed with the High Court against the lower court verdict.

Seventy four people, including 57 army officials, were killed in the BDR mutiny on February 25-26 in 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters in Dhaka.

The paramilitary force was later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).