Horror numbs Nation after Brutal Massacre of Senior Military Officers

[roshiq]

It was brutal & truly horrifying that even worse than any terrorist attack!

The barbarity is unimaginable...unforgivable.

It all started when thousands of rounds of gunshots and mortar started fired that rocked the Bangladesh Rifles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Rifles) Headquarters and adjacent areas in Dhaka as �angry and aggrieved� BDR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Rifles) soldiers launched a violent, bloody and armed mutiny against their high command from around 8:30 am, February 25, 2009.

At least near about 100 army officers (including high ranks as Major Generals, Colonels, Lt. Colonels and Majors) have been brutally killed, many are still missing and hundreds of their family members have been hold hostage. Some female officers, wives & family members of army officers also raped & brutally killed during this rebel of BDR personnels. Their indiscriminate firing at outside also caused more than 5 deaths of civilians.

With all of its five gates of BDR Headquarter at Dhaka closed, hundreds of soldiers wearing red bandanna and partly covering their faces with yellow clothes were seen staging armed processions in front of the gates�letting the people know that they were angry against senior army officers of their organization. The "reasons" that they said at the first day to the TV & Newspaper media were asking for accountability of the Project Dal Bhat (In March 2007 the caretaker govt. started the Project Dal Bhat by BDR low rank personnel to sell rice, vegetables and other commodities through BDR mobile outlets to bring down their prices during the high inflation period of economy). Other demands were PM or Home Minister must come in person to assure the BDR rebels that their demands will be met, BDR will solve their own problem Army should not interfere in BDR�s business, BDR head should not be appointed from Army.

After two days of high drama, the so called "mutiny" staged by a group of low-ranking personnel of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) ended after the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday warned the mutinous border guards (BDR) of tough action against them for the sake of national interest unless they surrender arms immediately to go back to the barracks. It ended yesterday evening without any military confrontation even though the army was well prepared to launch a crackdown with tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs) and commandos. Though at the very first day the PM instantly agreed even for 'amnesty' as they first demanded and also fulfill all their demands, but they didn't responded to that.

After the BDR surrenders, when armored police and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion...a joint force of Police & Army) personnel entered inside the BDR Headquarter which is a very large area in the middle of capital of Bangladesh, the real pictures started to flash out. Near about 25 Army officers rescued and they shared (with media crews) their near to death experiences who have been able to escaped & survived from those maniacs called BDR Rebellions. It started at the Darbar Hall where different BDR personnel were there to receive trophy of current BDR WEEK festival. Many high rank army officers were also attending there to share their reviews & ideas for further improvement of this national defense organization. When Major General Shakil Ahmed...the Chief of BDR was about to start his speech then one BDR low rank Jawan (soilder) entered from the backdoor with a gun. Instantly the jawan arrested, (because no one is allowed to go inside the hall with any types of weapon) but surprisingly all other Jawans & BDR officers (non army) left the hall, only different personnel from Army was their & just after a moment some round of gunfire started outside the hall. All happened within a some fraction of time. The BDR Soldiers wearing red bandanna and partly covering their faces entered the hall and started shooting & killing all of them. They were actually ready with the heavy weapons that they took by breaking the Weapon Storage room before or some time after the program begins at the hall.
It was all pre-planned...a genocide. Even now different Govt. officials, intelligent sources (who have been greatly failed to suspect & report this mess) confirmed that a group of people may be within the organization or from outside was behind this massacre & use normal BDR jawans/soldiers by wrongly stimulated their anger against the high officers of BDR who are also high rank personnel from Bangladesh Army to make a chaos in different national organizations of Bangladesh or even may prove to be an unworthy country in the map of the globe. News source says, the mutiny in Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) was spearheaded by a group of 20 to 25 non-commissioned soldiers who forced others to take up guns and participate in the savagery that followed, according to information shared by surviving officers and some fleeing mutineers.

The Killers dug a hole and dumped 39 bodies of the officers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) during the 33-hour mutiny of border guards at its headquarters in the city. The mutineers buried the army officers deputed to BDR, including BDR Chief Director General Major General Shakil Ahmed, in the mass grave after the gruesome killing, apparently to hide their brutality. The hole, which is around 12 feet in length, 10 feet wide and 15 feet deep, is located on the eastern side of the BDR hospital. The rescuers found the bodies dumped haphazardly in the hole. It was hard to identify many of the bodies as mutinous BDR men fired innumerable shots on the bodies and also charged bayonets to vent their anger. They also burned down the house and car of BDR DG/Chief and his wife is still missing. Some unconfirmed sources said that his wife have been burned alive inside a Military Jeep. Their children got saved as they were at the schools during the massacre took place at BDR HC. Even the house guests of BDR Chief (an ex army officer & his pregnant wife) also killed.

Undoubtedly, it has been a great loss for Bangladesh. Though killings of military personnel had been occurred in Bangladesh before after the Liberation War at 1971 but this is the most massive one. Even in a war a defeated country may not loss this kinda high number of top rank army officers like Major Generals and Colonels at a time. We express our deepest sympathies for all the people who lost their love ones in this one of the worst nightmare of our nation.

For more info and details please click any of the following link...

http://www.bangladeshnews.com.bd/

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/index.php

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/feb/27/front.html#1

[neverending]

So terrible. Are these animals going to be found and punished?

[fortunato]

Oh my goodness, I've been hearing about this on the radio. I can't believe it.
I actually thought of you immediately, Roshiq, when it first happened.

There's really not much to even say to something like this, but to focus on the future and come to terms with what has happened.

[newb]

WTF

The brutality of the human race simply dumbfounds me.

[Doc Faustus]

I can't watch the news anymore. The inhumanity is nauseating.

[newb]

I can't watch the news anymore. The inhumanity is nauseating.

between shit like that and the financial situation of the country.....I've had self imposed week long ban of ALL news....NO TV...NO RADIO


just trying to keep my sanity.

[Doc Faustus]

Excellent plan. The only way to defy an apocalyptic situation is to refuse to participate in it.

[newb]

Excellent plan. The only way to defy an apocalyptic situation is to refuse to participate in it.

works for me....that and plenty of BEER :D

[roshiq]

The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Friday said that the general amnesty she had declared for the rebel Bangladesh Rifles jawans would not cover those who had been involved in killings during the bloody rebellion in the border force’s headquarters in Dhaka.
‘Investigations will be conducted to identify those who had plotted the dastardly incident,’ she told reporters at Mirpur cantonment after meeting the relatives of the army officers who were killed and those who had been freed from captivity in the BDR headquarters. ‘It seems all BDR men were not involved in the incident. A certain group plotted and staged it and it has to be inquired if outside quarters instigated the incident… Investigation will be launched to identify them,’ she said. About the general amnesty for the rebels, the prime minister said though she had declared an amnesty, every institution had its own rules and they would conduct investigation accordingly. The amnesty will not be applicable to those who were involved in the dastardly acts like killings. She also urged all to guard against any new plot to stage such incident as ‘instigators have not stopped their game.’

The government had formed a high-powered investigation committee to probe the BDR rebellion. The government also had declared ‘National Mourning Days’ for three days starting Friday in honor of those slain in the revolt. National flag will fly at half-mast during the three-day mourning.

Several thousand BDR personnel who were in their headquarters at Pilkhana started to flee at around 1:00 pm on Thursday, sensing trouble. In a frantic bid to escape, they scaled the boundary wall at more than 15 points between BDR Gate-1 and Gate-5, near Gate-2, said local people. Around 25 BDR members left their arms outside the boundary wall. Many others who escaped later however threw those back inside the wall. And about 60 border guards re-entered the BDR headquarters crossing the boundary wall after 8:00 am yesterday, locals said. Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) detained only 193 fleeing BDR men at different points in and around the capital, and seized lot of cash & jewelries of the family members of army officers from their possession, said Commander SMAK Azad, director of legal and media wing of Rab. A law enforcement agency official said they found around 300 BDR personnel in the headquarters yesterday while their number was about 100 on Friday. A resident of nearby Ganaktuli Lane, told these correspondents that escape of BDR men started at about 1:00 pm on Thursday and continued till 8:00 pm.
Rescuers searching for dozens of officers still missing uncovered two more mass graves on the BDR headquarters premises today (Saturday). It was still unclear how many bodies were in the graves, sources said. Rescuers on Friday found a mass grave on the same compound in the capital containing 38 bodies. Another 24 bodies have been recovered in other parts of the compound including in drains and sewers following a 33-hour mutiny by the BDR soldiers that ended on Thursday.

The whole nation is passing one of its most terrifying & shocking times in the history…a true living nightmare for Bangladesh at the moment.

[Disease]

Wowa, I had no idea about this as I haven't seen or read any news at all this week, makes me wonder what else I missed. I think I should buy a paper today.

[Rayne]

I hope this is nowhere near where you live, Roshiq...I also hope it doesn't get close to you...Are you in any danger?

[roshiq]

I hope this is nowhere near where you live, Roshiq...I also hope it doesn't get close to you...Are you in any danger?

No..it doesn't. It's almost on the opposite part of the city where we live. But the sad thing is there are many residential areas, shopping malls, schools and University campuses around the BDR Headquarter. Just before the BDR soldiers surrendered Thursday evening, the heavy army troops from 2 nearby cantonment almost prepared to attack & crackdown the headquarter. So they started miking and requesting/suggesting the local people to leave their residents and go somewhere else other than within the 3 to 4 kilometers of BDR HC surrounding areas. At that point of time everybody was quite sure that there will be a war! So people were running scared outside their houses as no local transport facilities were available that time. Some of my friends live in those nearby areas and they are pretty safe now as they went to their different relative's houses and stayed out there as long the situation calms down.

Updates (http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/index.php):
Ten more bodies including one of a woman were retrieved from three mass graves found on the BDR headquarters premises today (Saturday). Three of the deceased were identified as Naznin Shakil Shipu, wife of the slain BDR chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, Maj Mosharraf and Maj Mokbul. Others' identity could not be known immediately.
Besides, two more bodies were recovered from the BDR headquarters area this morning.
Rescuers searching for dozens of officers still missing after a mutiny by border guards uncovered two more mass graves on the BDR headquarters compound this morning.

[roshiq]

Most of the BDR Jawaans who killed the army officers during the BDR "mutiny" genocide were quite young and most of the killings were carried out and over between 10:30 to 11:00 am (Feb 25, 2009), immediately after the chaos started at Darbar Hall at the BDR headquarters.

This eyewitness account of that fateful day came from a survivor officer, Lt. Colonel Shams, commander of Battalion-44, as he recounted what he saw in an interview published in several newspapers.

Lt Col Shams said when the Director General of BDR Shakil Ahmed was delivering his speech at the Darbar, a Jawan aimed an SMG rifle at the DG and he (Lt Col Shams) jumped up and pushed this man over, who was visibly unable to fire and was trembling as he approached the DG. As a chaos ensued, the army officers were sent out to calm down the Jawaans who had left the hall. Once outside, Lt Col Shams noticed a group of young Jawans, all firing their guns approaching the Darbar Hall from gate number 5.
During the mayhem that followed, some BDR JCO from battalion 44, including Subeder Saiful, Siraj and Ismail, told Shams that the situation was out of control and helped him escape the scene, taking him to their quarters at Al Beruni Bhaban.
As he was escaping, Lt Col Shams saw a Grey-colored pick-up approaching the Darbar Hall from the gate number 5, apparently loaded with boxes of ammunition. Shams said that he had never seen such a pickup used in either the BDR or the army. By the time he had reached Al Beruni Bhaban, he could hear the sound of firing at the Darbar hall.
"It was between 10:30 am to 11:00 am and I assume most of the officers were killed during that time," he said in the interview.
"The Jawans took me to their house and told me that my life would be in no danger as long as they were alive. They took off my badge and uniform and gave me clothes to wear. I hid in that house for the next two days,' the Lt Col said. "Whenever any rebelling Jawans came near the house to search, I would hide in the floor compartment of a box bed," Shams said expressing his gratitude to those who saved his life at such a time.
During the evening of February 25, Shams said he saw cleaners going into the Darbar Hall with cloths and he also recalls seeing ambulances going there and he realized that these people were going to clean up the place and remove the bodies of the officers killed.
Though the rebels had at the beginning announced over microphones that they had enough ammunition to continue to fight for six months, the next morning (Thursday) they began to call on all not to misuse the bullets.
Lt Col Shams said that the situation inside the BDR headquarters seemed to calm down on February 26 following the prime minister's speech that was aired on television. "The prime minister's speech worked like a wonder. The tension seemed to ease. Groups of Jawans started surrendering arms following the speech," the Lt Col said in the interview. Shams said that most of the Jawans appeared gloomy to him, following the prime minister's speech.
Shams also saw many Jawans fleeing the BDR headquarters in civil clothes on the second day of the mutiny.

Other Updates (http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/index.php)

[roshiq]

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/6500/2daysagomutinoussoldier.jpg
4 days ago Mutinous soldiers of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) stand inside their headquarter

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/6504/representativesofthebdr.jpg
Representatives of the BDR rebel maniacs emerge from the compound on the way to negotiate & place their demands with Govt. Personnel.

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People scared & running while BDR indiscriminately firing outside the BDR compound

[Kemal]

Jesus, I haven't heard anything about this.

This is what happens when social order breaks down. . .

[roshiq]

Jesus, I haven't heard anything about this.

This is what happens when social order breaks down. . .

yeah, you are right but here instead of 'social order' the defense system specially the border security & guard forces were almost about to breaks down.

It was a bloody conspiracy of the 'forces' that doesn't want to see Bangladesh as a liberal country and tries to make a chaos to crackdown the political, social & economical stability to prove it's independence "Unworthy" to the rest of the world. There are sufficient evidences already coming from the interrogation and eye witnesses of survived army personnel that there was a group of outside people in very few in numbers who came via an unknown Grey Colored Jeep and supplied the weapons of initial attack. After that, they broke down the Weapon Storage Room and handed the machine guns and other heavy & light weapons to the rebel Jawans.

The government yesterday decided to deploy members of the armed forces across the country indefinitely to help law enforcement agencies arrest the absconding rebels of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and recover the missing firearms and ammunition. The deployment begins today morning in aid of the civil administration under the 'Operation Rebel Hunt' mission, sources said.
A notice was issued by the home ministry in this regard hours after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held talks with army officers at Sena Kunja at the Dhaka Cantonment yesterday. The forces will be stationed at district headquarters and carry out operations on the basis of specific information from their intelligence, said sources.
Hasina told the House last night that her government had already assigned members of army, Rab and police to hunt down the absconding rebels.
Following the government notice, verbal messages had already been conveyed to the cantonments across the country to prepare the forces for the operation, said sources in the armed forces division. The forcers were preparing themselves so that they could reach their destinations by today morning, the sources added.
"The operation will continue until its goal is achieved," said a mid-ranking army official wishing anonymity.
"The army will help the law enforcement agencies to arrest the absconding rebels and recover firearms," Deputy Secretary (political) of home ministry, Javed Ahmed told The Daily Star last night.
When asked about the duration of deployment of the armed forces, he said no time limit had been set for it. "They will be withdrawn once the situation comes under control," he added.
A number of BDR personnel have been on the run while many arms and ammunition remain missing since the Wednesday's mutiny at the BDR headquarters. Meanwhile, the government decided to restructure the probe body formed to investigate the bloody mutiny at the BDR headquarters. Representatives from the home ministry, armed forces division, Rab and police department will be included in it. The government is also working on the modus operandi of the proposed special tribunal for trying the people responsible for the massacre.
Meanwhile, around 2:00pm yesterday a Rab-2 team cordoned off Ganaktoli Lane in the capital and searched around 700 houses for firearms, ammunitions and fugitive BDR jawans, said locals. They detained a man with 30 rounds of bullet at Ganaktoli Lane yesterday. The detainee was Mohammad Yusuf, 35, a resident of the area. Director of Rab's Legal and Media Wing AK Azad said on government order Rab was conducting a massive drive to capture the rebel BDR jawans since February 26.

[roshiq]

Feb 25 & Feb 26, 2009:

A troop of Bangladesh Army was waiting on the streets of Dhaka for the order to attack & crackdown the BDR HC. But finally Govt. didn't release the order, they solved the matter in a political way.

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While entering the BDR HC after the rebel BDR Jawans surrenders... a Soldier in tears just After knowing that several senior respected Army Officers have been already brutally killed through a genocide.


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