Bangladesh security forces arrested nearly 200 border troops yesterday in a nationwide manhunt for mutineers who staged a bloody two-day revolt that turned the capital into a battle zone.
The fate of more than 130 army officers taken hostage by the mutineering guards remained unclear, however, after the rank-and-file troops surrendered and returned to barracks late on Thursday.
Police have put the official death toll at 22, with dozens more injured — but that figure could go up significantly. Some bodies of murdered officers have been pulled from sewers.
“We have arrested nearly 200 Bangladesh Rifles [BDR] troops who fled their barracks in civilian dress. We were given orders to arrest the mutineers,” said a spokesman for the elite Rapid Action Battalion, Commander Abul Kalam Azad.
He said checkpoints had been set up at all routes leading out of the capital Dhaka and surrounding the BDR barracks.
“We are searching buses and trucks for any other rebel troops,” he said.
The BDR guards, who were demanding better pay and conditions, surrendered after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned they were on a “suicidal” path that could only end in bloodshed.
As calm returned yesterday to Dhaka, one regular army officer held hostage by the guards talked of his escape as his captors opened fire indiscriminately.
“It was cold-blooded murder,” Syed Kamruzzaman said, adding that BDR chief Major General Shakil Ahmed was gunned down in front of him.
Officials would not confirm Ahmed’s death.
“They hurled abuse at us and gunned down whoever they wanted. I was shot at seven times and was lucky to get out alive,” he said.
An armed forces spokesman said only 31 of the 168 officers inside the Dhaka headquarters when the mutiny began were accounted for and rescue workers were searching sewers in the compound for bodies.
“We don’t know what happened to the rest of the 137 officers. They are still missing,” he said.
One minister earlier said 50 officers may have been killed.
Tensions in the BDR had been simmering for months but erupted into violence early on Wednesday when senior officers rejected appeals for more pay, subsidized food and holidays.
It then petered out, however, after Sheikh Hasina — who took office only two months ago, although she had served as prime minister once before — appeared on national television and threatened to put down the mutiny by force.
The violence was the first major crisis she has faced since her landslide election victory ended two years of army-backed rule.
She had offered the mutineers an amnesty on Wednesday and also promised to address complaints over low pay and working conditions.
Manzoor Hasan, the director of BRAC University’s Institute of Governance Studies in Dhaka, said there were a “few worrying hours” where the prime minister appeared to be losing control.
“It was a bit of a baptism by fire for her. It was a critical test, but I think in the end she tackled it competently,” he said.
The revolt has highlighted the frustrations felt by many in Bangladesh, which suffers from high food prices, a slowing economy and rampant corruption in the upper echelon of society.
Bangladesh has had a history of political violence, coups and counter-coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971.
It was run by a military dictator from 1982 to 1990 before democracy was restored in 1991. In January 2007, the army again stepped in, canceled elections and declared a state of emergency after months of political unrest.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but