Bangladesh police said yesterday that two border guards who died at a military camp while in custody over a bloody mutiny were tortured and murdered.
Kamrul Islam, a Dhaka police chief, said autopsies have shown that the two were “murdered” at the headquarters of the border forces, where thousands of guards were detained over mutiny charges.
“We have filed two murder cases on the death of two border guards. Autopsies ... clearly show torture marks and that they were murdered,” he said.
Seventy-four people, including 57 senior army officers, were killed in the bloody siege at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters in the capital Dhaka on Feb. 25 and Feb. 26.
The standoff ended after 33 hours with more than 3,000 rank-and-file guards, who reportedly fled in civilian dress, now in custody. Most have been charged with sedition.
The BDR has said 48 guards have died after the mutiny and last month but it denied allegations that the deaths were the result of torture.
“Recently some media outlets have run misleading news on the death of the BDR members since the BDR headquarters killing,” the force said in a statement.
“Those media have said the BDR members have died in custody and due to torture, but no BDR members died as a result of torture while in custody since the February events.”
The BDR said of the 41 deaths till early last month, 14 had died of heart attacks, eight committed suicide, three died in accidents and the rest died of medical ailments such as stroke, cancer and diabetes-related conditions.
A handful of deaths occurred while the guards were on parole, it said.
The government has launched a probe into the “unnatural deaths” of the guards, but the investigators have not yet filed their findings.
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