200 renegade BDR personnel arrested; 130 army officer missing

Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Feb 27 (PTI) About 200 renegade Bangladesh Rifles
personnel, who took part in the mutiny in the force over pay
hike that virtually turned the capital into a battle zone,
were today arrested after a nationwide manhunt, even as more
than 130 army officers remained missing.
"200 BDR personnel have been arrested from different
parts of the city as they fled their barracks after donning
civil cloths despite orders to stay back inside the
Headquarters," a Rapid Action Battalion official said.
"We have been given orders to arrest the mutineers... we
are searching buses and trucks for any other rebel troops and
check points have been erected at all intersection," RAB
spokesman Commander Abul Kalam Azad said.
The manhunt for the mutineers began as the fate of more
than 130 army officers taken hostage by border guards remains
still unclear as army units joined police and security
agencies in frantic search for them.
Though the officials put the death toll at 22, but it is
feared that the figure could jump over 100 as discontented
BDR jawans apparently dumped a lot bodies in sewerage
manholes.
An armed force spokesman said only 31 out of 168
officers present in the BDR Headquarters in Pilkhana area at
the time of uprising were accounted for.
As calm returned to the BDR Headquarters, Home Minister
Shahara Khatun and Army chief General Moeen U Ahmed entered
the complex which is besieged by anxious relatives looking for
their family members as police continues to search and
retrieve bodies after the two-day old revolt.
The rebellion ended Thursday night after tanks
surrounded the huge complex in central Dhaka in a show of
force to intimidate and force a surrender by the mutineers.
Nearly 2,000 BDR personnel opened fire on their seniors
mostly officers drawn from the army at a 'darbar' and seized
the Headquarters to protest poor pay and working condition.
Forty-eight hours after the revolt, scores of senior
army officers who were manning the top echelons of the force
are still missing including the Director Major General Shakil
Ahmed.
Lt Col Syed Quamruzzaman, an army officer who survived
the attacks by BDR rank-and-file, said Ahmed was killed at the
very onset of the rebellion.
"Four soldiers jumped forward and killed instantly the
DG (Ahmed) as he stepped out of the darbar hall as the
mutiny started Wednesday," Quamruzzaman told reporters Friday.
"The mutineers gunned down whoever they wanted. I was
shot at seven times and was lucky to get out alive," he said.
A suspected rebel BDR soldier being held by Rapid Action
Battalion (RAB) troops told reporters that the wife of the BDR
chief was also killed.
Frantic search was carried out overnight at the BDR
headquarters which bore the maximum damage with the main
meeting halls and rooms pock marked by bullets holes.
TV channels footages showed a helmet was floating on the
filthy waters inside a manhole but no body was found there
but rescuers earlier found bodies of several officers at an
outlet of the swear system at Kamrangirchar area.
Earlier, officials said 24 captive officers and stranded
families of a number of others were rescued as the rebel
soldiers laid down their arms.
Police said they found grenades and automatic assault
rifles scattered all over the complex, but no bodies were
found in the complex, as apparently they had been disposed off
by the rebels before they caved in.
Four army tanks entered the BDR Headquarters as troops
joined the rescue campaign along with fire service and police.
"This (their entrance) is part of the rescue search," a
military official told reporters.
Witnesses said at least two teams of the army personnel
headed by two Brigadier Generals entered the paramilitary
troops headquarters while senior government leaders also were
at the scene to oversee the rescue operations. PTI AR
PMR
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