1,000 Bangladeshi border guards charged in mutiny

BANGLADESHI police charged more than 1,000 border guards with murder and arson yesterday after a bloody mutiny in the capital that left as many as 148 people dead or missing, most of them army officers.

The government announced plans to form a special tribunal to try the border guards who organised the mutiny.

Of 181 officers, only 33 survived the uprising at the Bangladesh Rifles border force headquarters in Dhaka, said army spokesman Brigadier General Mahmud Hossain.

Teams continued searching the compound grounds and nearby sewers yesterday for more bodies, including 71 people unaccounted for.

Most of the missing were presumed dead, according to Sheikh Mohammad Shajalal, a fireman over- seeing the search.

The insurrection apparently erupted over the border guards’ long-standing complaints that their pay has not kept pace with the salaries of soldiers.

The crisis has raised questions about the stability of prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s two-month-old government in the south asian country, which has seen nearly two dozen successful and failed military coups in its 38-year history.

Hasina ended the two-day standoff by persuading the guards to surrender with promises of an amnesty and with threats of military force — tanks rolled into Dhaka’s streets before the insurrection ended on Thursday.

Hundreds of guards began reporting back to their headquarters yesterday, all claiming they had no part in the mutiny, after the Home Ministry gave them a 24-hour ultimatum to return to their posts, report to police stations or face disciplinary action.

The guards waited outside as officials checked their credentials. Some said they were on leave or off duty during the mutiny, while others claimed they fled the compound after the violence started.