Army convoys enter Peelkhana

Mass grave at BDR HQ: 88 bodies including Gen Shakil recovered; Army convoys enter Peelkhana

Bangladesh Army troops entering BDR headquarteryesterday to launch search operation for missing officersand weapons.

Wife of a missing army officer deputed to theBangladesh Rifles is wailing as no information whether herhusband is alive or not has reached her yet.

The dead body of an army official who was deputed inthe BDR is being salvaged from a manhole of a sewerage lineinside BDR headquarters.

With the recovery of 51 more bodies of the army officers from ditches near the Darbar Hall inside the BDR headquarters at Peelkhana in the capital and nearby canal yesterday, the official death toll in the two-day BDR mutity mounted to nearly 100.

The body of slain BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed was among the bodies retrieved yesterday.

The head of the Fire Service, Brig Gen Abu Nayeem Md Shahidullah identified the boy of Maj Gen Shakil. " Though the body was stripped of uniform, yet I could recognize his body since I knew him very well personally," the fire service chief told reporters inside the Peelkhana on Friday afternoon.

Most of the slain army officers, whose bodies were recovered yesterday, were of the rank from colonel to major. They were sent to BDR on deputation at different times.

Some of the bodies retrieved yesterday were identified as those of Col Elahi, Col Muazzem, Col Emdad, Col Ensat, Col Ehsan, Maj Masum, Maj Rafiq, Maj Moshiur, Maj Haider, Maj Khalid, Col Latifur Rahman, Col Nakibur Rahman, Col Imam Shawkat, Lt Col Rabi Rahman and Maj Mahbub.

Nazneen Ahmed, wife of slain general Shakil, was also believed to have been killed in the revolt. Her body is yet to be traced, the Fire chief said. Of the bodies, 21 were sent to the Dhaka Medical college hospital and 30 to Midford college hospital for autopsy.

Meanwhile, army tanks and convoys rolled into the BDR headquarters yesterday to conduct search for the missing or dead army officers following the two days' revolt by BDR soldiers. The tanks entered into the BDR headquarters with the permission from the Prime Minister, a press wing official of the prime minister's office told newsmen.

Witnesses said eight tanks entered the headquarters at around 11:00am and later more armoured vehicles with army personnel proceeded towards the headquarters yesterday. The tanks were stationed near Abahani playground. The authorities have launched a massive hunt for the border guards who fled the barracks in civilian clothes. About 200 BDR soldiers have already been arrested. The mutinous border guards surrendered their weapons on Thursday after the government declared amnesty. However, the prime minister said that the BDR soldiers responsible for the massacre at the Peelkhana would not be considered for mercy.

The Bangladesh Rifles, a paramilitary force responsible for guarding the country's borders, mutinied at their headquarters in Dhaka on Wednesday over what is said poor pay scale and lack of other facilities.

In the face of ultimatum from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the mutineers at the Peelkhana laid down their arms and surrendered on Thursday afternoon.

The bodies of 17 army officers including that Brig Gen Abdul Bari were recovered from nearby ditches of the BDR headquarters on Thursday evening.

Dozens of army officers are still missing.

There were 169 army officers inside the peelkhana BDR headquarters when the mutiny broke out on Wednesday morning.Of them, 88 were found dead so far and 27 others came out of their captivity from the BDR headquarters after the mutineers surrendered their arms and ammunition on Thursday afternoon.

One officer said yesterday that as soon as the mutiny began he jumped into a ditch where he remained in neck deep water until Thursday evening. At night he came out of the ditch and climbed on a roof of a building till the mutiny ended, he noted.

The police officials while searching for the bodies and missing army officers inside Peelkhana yesterday found a number of ditches where the bodies of the slain army officers were dumped to avoid detection.

Thirty-four bodies of the army officers were recovered from a 15 feet deep ditch near the BDR hospital mortuary and nine other bodies from another two nearby ditches around 2:30pm yesterday. Fourteen of them were in BDR uniform. Eight other bodies were recovered from a canal.

Relatives of the missing officers and soldiers thronged the Nawabganj sluice gate and BDR headquarters areas for the bodies of their near and dear ones.

During the joint hunt by the army, police and Rab, a huge number of BDR uniforms were found abandoned inside the headquarters.

State Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak yesterday said the killing of army officers during the BDR mutiny was an act of sabotage.

"It did not happen out of blue. It was a conspiracy. They were killed in a well-planned way," Nanak told reporters at 4:15pm at the VIP gate of BDR headquarters near Jhigatala.

The state minister said a vested group had long been hatching a conspiracy and it distributed millions of taka among the BDR soldiers.

The government yesterday announced a three-day national mourning for the slain army officers.