Bangladesh is at risk of more attacks “to foil the country’s democracy” after a savage mutiny in which at least 74 people were killed, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said in comments published yesterday.
She said her own safety was also at risk, describing as “condemnable” last week’s mutiny by paramilitary troops of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards who killed more than 50 senior army personnel.
She said the 33-hour standoff was part of a wider plot to destabilize Bangladesh.
“Conspiracies against Bangladesh are not over yet. There is still a plot to foil the country’s democracy, independence and sovereignty,” she said at a seminar in comments carried by the private online newspaper bdnews24.com.
Last week’s bloodshed has presented Hasina with a major crisis little more than two months after she won power in elections that ended two years of rule by an army-backed emergency government.
“Many did not like the incident to end so soon; the game is still on and the conspirators are not taking a break,” Hasina said.
The troops, whose duties include guarding Bangladesh’s long border with India, have said the incident stemmed from a dispute over pay and conditions.
Hasina has launched an investigation into the attacks but on Tuesday the army said it was conducting its own probe independent of the elected government, which analysts said exposed tensions between the two.
Security forces arrested five BDR guards late on Tuesday, including the man accused of being the revolt’s leader.
“Intelligence and RAB [Rapid Action Battalion] officers have arrested Touhidul Alam following a raid in the capital. He is the prime accused in the events at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters,” said M. Kamruzzaman, spokesman for the elite battalion.
Alam led a small group of the mutineers who held negotiations with Hasina to end the revolt.
The soldiers fled their compound on Thursday, apparently dressed as civilians, leaving behind gruesome scenes with scores of bodies, many mutilated by bayonets, dumped in mass graves or thrown down drains.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi authorities have asked the US’ FBI to help probe the troop mutiny.
“We have received a request from the government of Bangladesh for the FBI to help in forensic investigation into the mutiny,” Gordon Duguid, a US State Department spokesman, said on Tuesday.
Duguid said he believed the FBI had agreed to the request, but referred reporters to the bureau, which said it had made no decision.
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