Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed on Sunday said her government has sought international assistance to probe the killing of army officers during a mutiny by paramilitary border guards against their commanders four days previously, according to dpa. "I have sought support from the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States and the Scotland Yard of Britain for thorough investigation into the mayhem by the unruly soldiers," Hasina told Parliament. She said the government levelled charges against more than 1,000 troops suspected of having participated in a mutiny in the headquarters of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards that left more than 70 dead. Hasina also talked to the Assistant Secretary to the US State Department for South and Central Asia, Richard A Boucher, who phoned her to discuss Wednesday's events. Parliament unanimously adopted a motion of condolence in the presence Sunday, after observing three days of mourning for the army officers slain in the attack. Hasina noted it had been a "well planned" attack on a discipline force that had been intended to dismantle her two-month old government and to destabilize the country that returned to democracy after two years of rule by a military-backed administration. "We want a complete investigation to stop the recurrence of such violent incidents," Hasina said. Troops will be deployed across the country under the Operation Rebel Hunt, expected to begin some time late Sunday, to locate absconders and recover firearms missing from the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters. Meanwhile, the authorities in Bangladesh were to charge more than 1,000 soldiers Sunday. Police commander Nabo Jyoti Kisha lodged the charges against troopers led by six junior officers of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) force, accusing them of rebellion against their commanders. The soldiers face charges of the premeditated murder of army officers and their spouses with firearms and explosives. The BDR soldiers are also accused of hostage-taking, as well as attempting to dispose of the bodies of their victims by fire, burying them in mass graves and dumping them into sewage. "The plaintiff named six of the accused while 1,000 more are unnamed," police spokesman Tariqul Islam said. Bangladesh has decided to enact new legislation in order to prosecute the mutineers in a speedy trial. The death toll in the rebellion rose to 73, when a body was recovered from a drain outside the headquarters complex Sunday. The rescue teams on Sunday were still searching for some 72 officers still missing. The officers were attending an annual conference at the headquarters of the BDR force in central Dhaka, when they were taken hostage by the rebels. The mutiny ended late Thursday with the surrender of the mutineers, 35 hours after rebel soldiers opened fire on their officers at the meeting where soldiers were allowed to air grievances. Several hundred enlisted men, enraged over a pay dispute and alleged repression and corruption by the commanders of the 67,000- strong force, took the officers hostage. Meanwhile, several thousand paramilitary soldiers returned to the headquarters in response to a government call to report for duty after having fled their stations. They claimed not to have been involved in the mutiny.
