DHAKA, Bangladesh — Firefighters searching the headquarters compound of Bangladesh’s border guards Friday uncovered the grisly results of the force’s two-day mutiny — dozens of senior officers massacred, their bodies dumped into shallow graves and sewers.
By nightfall, 44 bodies had been found, including the body of Maj. Gen. Shakil Ahmed, the commander of the guards, bringing the confirmed death toll to 66, said fire official Mizanur Rahman. Dozens more officers were missing.
Newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ended the revolt in two days, persuading the mutinous guards to surrender through promises of amnesty coupled with threats of military force. Still, the insurrection raised questions about stability in this poor South Asian nation.
Hasina said Friday that there would be no amnesty for the killers.
The rebellion in the Bangladesh Rifles border force paralyzed the capital and unsettled this nation of 150 million people. The army chief, Gen. Moeen U. Ahmed, met with Hasina at her home in Dhaka late Friday, apparently to discuss the situation.
Following the border guards’ surrender Thursday, search teams moved into the sprawling Bangladesh Rifles compound that houses the guards and many of their families.
One corner of the compound held two mass graves where slain officers had been put into shallow holes and covered with dirt. Firefighters used crowbars to pry off manhole covers and recover more corpses stuffed into sewers.
All the victims appeared to be officers and were wearing combat fatigues.
The insurrection erupted from the guards’ longtime frustrations that their pay hasn’t kept pace with that of soldiers in the army — anger aggravated by the rise in food prices that has accompanied the global economic crisis. The guards earn about $100 a month.
