Bangladeshi troops find mass grave after mutiny

By South Asia correspondent Sally Sara

The Bangladeshi army has found a grave in Dhaka with the bodies of dozens of officers killed in a mutiny by border guards.

Troops retrieved the bodies of dozens of army officers from a mass grave at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles.

The victims were killed by their own soldiers during a rebellion.

The commander of the border guards was among the dead.

Up to 200 mutinous troops have now been arrested and up to 100 officers are still missing.

Distraught relatives gathered outside the barracks in central Dhaka.

The mutiny began on Wednesday during a dispute over pay and conditions.

The soldiers eventually surrendered after a warning from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

After Bangladesh mutiny, search for missing

(CNN) -- The Bangladeshi army resumed its search Friday for missing military officials inside an expansive paramilitary forces compound that had been the site of a deadly two-day standoff.

More than 130 officers were unaccounted for, said Cmdr. Abdul Kalam Azad with the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite internal security team.

By Friday morning, it was still not clear how many people had died during the standoff inside the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) paramilitary force in the capital, Dhaka.

At least 20 deaths have been confirmed, Azad said.

Many of the victims had been shot and their bodies dumped down sewers. The bodies floated down rivers for miles before they were spotted. All of them had on uniforms, officials said.

The city's water department said it would pump water into sewage lines that lead from the headquarters to flush out any bodies that might be trapped inside.

At the time of the rebellion, 168 army officers and 11,000 BDR troops were inside.
Meanwhile, RAB forces arrested about 150 BDR troops who fled their barracks when their comrades agreed to lay down arms after the standoff ended Thursday.

The troops had donned plain clothes and fled to various parts of Dhaka, where they were arrested, Azad said. Others had agreed to surrender their weapons after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said she would grant them amnesty.
"We were told by the army that we should apprehend anyone who tried to escape," Azad said.

The standoff started Wednesday when paramilitary troops rebelled against their commanders.

The Rifles are responsible primarily for guarding the country's borders. The force, more than 65,000-strong, also takes part in operations such as monitoring polls.

The BDR comprises recruits, whose commanding officers are military officers.
Discontent had been bubbling for years, with those in BDR ranks complaining that army superiors dismissed their appeals for more pay, subsidized food and opportunities to participate in U.N. peacekeeping operations -- which pay far more than what recruits make at home.