26 February,2009 01:34 PM IST | | PTI
A bloody mutiny by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) on Thursday spread to areas outside the national capital, as the death toll in the uprising over pay dispute mounted to over 50 with retrieval of five more bodies including that of a Brigadier from Pilkhana garrison here.
As the renegade BDR personnel started laying down their weapons in Dhaka in response to a general amnesty announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, reports said that BDR soldiers in the outlying provinces had also joined the rebellion.
TV channels reported that rebellion had broken out in 12 border districts where senior officers, mostly from the army had fled. According to police, BDR personnel in Joypurhat district indulged in indiscriminate firing.
In Dinajpur and Rangpur districts - both sectoral headquarters of BDR - soldiers came out of barracks and held demonstrations, but there was no report of violence. As many as 50 senior army officers may have been killed in the revolt in Pilkhana Headquarters yesterday.
"We fear some 50 people are dead," Junior Law Minister Quamrul Islam told reporters on Thursday outside the Headquarters, the scene of heavy gun battles yesterday. Police said they confirmed the identities of at least two of them, BDR's Deputy Director General Brigadier Abdul Bari and Operations Director Colonel Anis.
Prime Minister Hasina would address the nation on the happenings.
