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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.
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