DHAKA: Soldiers in Bangladesh discovered 38 bodies of senior officers in a mass grave yesterday, including the chief of the border security force, bringing to 66 the number killed in a mutiny.
Maj. Gen. Shakil Ahmed, chief of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), was among the dead found in the grave, which soldiers and sniffer dogs discovered after the revolt by rank-and-file border guards ended in the capital Dhaka on Thursday. The fate of Ahmed’s missing wife and teenage son was unknown.
A further 28 bodies were found, including some pulled from sewers and manholes, but the whereabouts of around 70 officers taken hostage by the mutineers remained unclear, after the rebels surrendered and returned to barracks. Authorities have detained hundreds of fleeing border guards, many of them disguised in civilian clothes.
The mutineers had been promised amnesty to persuade them to surrender. But after meeting with family members of the dead officers, Prime Minister Hasina Wajed said the amnesty would not apply to those who carried out the killings. “No one has the right to kill anyone,” she said.
