Seven more slain BDR officers were found on the Buriganga River Thursday following the hara-kiri inside the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Headquarters in the capital, raising the death toll in the mutiny to 12 by official count, reports UNB.
Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police recovered five bodies that went down the drain into the river at Islambagh point at 6:30am while two other dead were found at the end of the sewerage tunnel near Nawabganj Bazargoli before being swept down into the river-waters.
The deceased were identified as Col Anisuzzaman, Col Zahid, Col Touhid, Lt Col Syed Kamruzzaman, Major Mahbubul Haider, Major Mahbub and Captain Majharul Haider.
Local people, however, said some more bodies were whisked away by rescuers in vans.
Earlier, the police found the bodies of two officers at Kamrangir Char, adjacent to the BDR headquarters Wednesday afternoon. The bodies were found at the end of a storm-sewerage tunnel at about 3:00pm, following the morning putsch.
Three civilians were also killed and more than 40 injured by stray bullets Wednesday. They include a poor rickshaw-puller and students of Dhaka University, People's University and Dhaka College.
Meanwhile, emerging from the BDR Headquarters at the dead of Wednesday night, State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam told private TV channel reporters that at least 50 were feared killed in Wednesday's BDR revolt, staged against their commanding officers from the Army.
When asked if he saw the bodies or counted those, he replied: "They told me they kept the bodies at the hospital inside the headquarters, but we didn't go to the hospital."
Unconfirmed reports pouring into the newsroom of the news agency from different sources suggest that the casualty figure might be much higher, running into a hundred.
Different sources inside the headquarters said most sector commanders and high-ranked officers and some jawans were killed in the mutiny.
Conflicting reports from inside the besieged BDR Headquarters said BDR Chief Major General Shakil Ahmed was killed at the start of the putsch in Darbar Hall. But there was no official confirmation about what actually happened to the BDR director general.
General Shakil's mother in an interview with private TV channels in hometown Brahmanbaria said Wednesday she had last contact with Shakil's wife at about 8:30am. Relentlessly weeping, the elderly woman said, "I'm not aware what happened to my son."
