From Dhaka's Daily Satr
How it Began: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77496
They flee; uniforms left behind http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77500
Demands they put forward http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77501
BDR at a glance http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=77514
The mutiny sparked off at the Darbar Hall at the Pilkhana BDR Headquarters at 9:00am when rebellious jawans created a commotion while the Director General was delivering his speech to a gathering of officers and lower tier personnel on the occasion of BDR week.
The Daily Star talked to one of the mutineers over mobile phone and took his version of how the mutiny began.
Wishing anonymity, he said, "The lower tier BDR personnel (who are recruited directly by the BDR authority) have been demanding solution to a number of problems related to pay and benefits. These demands were raised before the DG so that he places them before the Prime Minister who came to Pilkhana yesterday (Tuesday) to inaugurate the BDR week. The DG raised before the Prime Minister only two demands of the army officers in BDR but none of the demands of the lower tier personnel. This intensified our grievance."
He said by Tuesday the angry jawans went out to print a leaflet headlined, 'Save BDR! Save the country! Save the Nation: why are 45,000 BDR personnel subservient today? The BDR is alien in its own home. Take a look, honourable prime minister, thinkers of the country.'
This leaflet was circulated among jawans and outsiders Tuesday night.
Yesterday morning, officers and lower tier BDR personnel gathered at the Darbar Hall at a programme attended by, among others, the DG. According to the mutineer talking to The Daily Star, when the DG started delivering his speech before 9:00am, a few BDR personnel created a commotion from the rear. The officers, sitting in the front row reacted to their unruly behaviour.
The disgruntled jawans asked the DG about the profit made during the Dal-Bhaat programme. They said after the programme ended, they were told that they would receive bonuses from the profit. Accordingly they had put their signatures on money receipts, but never got the money, claimed the mutineer.
The mutineer said, "At one stage, an officer fired a shot injuring a jawan. Then the lower tier personnel went out of the Darbar Hall and returned there with arms from the Pilkhana armoury and held the officers hostage at gunpoint."
A source in the army told The Daily Star said the jawans appeared to have launched the mutiny as per a plan. "We don't have any information to substantiate that the officers fired first," he said.
The mutineer said the officers were not tied or gagged. They were kept inside the Darbar Hall at gunpoint throughout the day and were served with food, he claimed. However they were verbally abused.
He however declined to say how many officers were killed or injured or how many of them were held hostage. "You will get to know that in due time," he added.
Army officers told The Daily Star that they received calls between 9:00am and 10:00 am from some of the BDR officials held hostage at Pilkhana who pleaded for immediate action to rescue them.
Over 3,300 soldiers belonging to battalions 24, 36, 13 and 44 in Dhaka took part in the mutiny. Besides, 3,000 more soldiers of various battalions in the country who came to Pilkhana on the occasion of the BDR week also participated in it. "As a result, we faced no opposition while launching the mutiny," he pointed out.
There are 46 battalions in the country, each having 826 soldiers -- totalling nearly 40,000 soldiers in the BDR. The number of officers in BDR is between 250 and 300, he added.
Asked if there was no opposition, why did the mutineers fire so many shots throughout the day, he said, "Just to make sure that nobody tries to enter Pilkhana from outside and foil our effort." Most of those were blank shots as there was no particular target.
He claimed that the mutiny was not a culmination of a thought-out plan hatched over a long period of time. "We did it almost suddenly," he claimed.
"Those who took part in it are sepoys, nayeks, lance nayeks, havildars and JCOs," he added.
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