DHAKA, Feb 28: Firefighters dug up 10 more bodies from mass graves at the headquarters of Bangladesh’s border guards on Saturday, raising the death toll to 76 in the force’s two-day mutiny over low pay and other grievances, officials said.

Political allies, who met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her home on Saturday to discuss the uprising, called for national unity in a statement issued after the meeting.

Ms Hasina, who took office in January, persuaded the guards to surrender on Thursday with promises of an amnesty coupled with threats of military force. But she said on Friday there would be no amnesty for the killers, and her government gave border guards across the country 24 hours on Saturday to return to their posts or report to a local police station.

The mutineers had hurriedly dumped the bodies of dozens of senior officers into shallow graves and sewers at the headquarters compound in the capital. Among the dead was Maj-Gen Shakil Ahmed, the commander of the Bangladesh Rifles border force. Dozens more officers were missing, and workers scoured the compound and nearby areas, including a pond, in an intense search for more victims.—AP
Tags: