Three more mass graves were found yesterday inside the compound of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Headquarters at Peelkhana in the city, from where 10 more decomposed bodies including the body of Nazneen Shakil, wife of the slain Director General (DG) of BDR Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed were recovered.
With these, a total of 71 bodies have so far been recovered from four mass graves inside the BDR compound, Fire Brigade sources said. Earlier on Friday, 38 bodies including the body of Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed and 36 other army officers from the ranks of captain to Maj Gen and a BDR jawan were recovered from a mass grave adjacent to the mortuary of the BDR Hospital.
Many of the army officers, who were inside the BDR Headquarters during the carnage, still remain missing, as the law enforcers are yet to recover their bodies or know their whereabouts. Some 63 bodies of the army officials were recovered in the last three days, sources said.
On February 26, the 36-hour-long bloody mutiny of the BDR jawans came to an end with the surrendering of arms by the rebels to the government.
Members of the Fire Brigade yesterday found three more mass graves at a vegetables garden at the western side of the Central Workshop Field (13-battalion field) at around 10.30 in the morning and 10 more bodies were recovered from the graves. The graves were found 100 yards away from the mass grave that was detected first.
The fire brigade men recovered four bodies from each of the two mass graves and two bodies including the body of Nazneen Shakil were recovered from another grave.
Lt Col Quader’s wife and friend of Nazneen Shakil, Parveen Quader and sister-in-law of Major Gen Shakil identified her bodies after seeing blue nail polish on her fingers, black and maroon coloured blouse, green sharee that she was wearing.
Talking to The Independent, Md Abdur Rashid, Deputy Director (Dhaka Division) of the Fire Service and Civil Defence said, "We recovered 10 bodies including the body of the wife of slain Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed from three mass graves near the Central Workshop Field."
"Four of them were identified as Nazneen Shakil, Maj Mahbub, Maj Moshrraf and Maj Mokbul. Two bodies of colonels were also recovered from the graves, which could be confirmed by their batches found there," he said.
"Each of the mass graves was around 6 feet by 4 feet in size and the depth of the graves was around five feet," he added.
After hearing the news of recovery of 10 more bodies including the body of Maj Moshrraf, his mother Mamtaj Begum, wife Kamrun Nahar Lipi and two other relatives rushed to the scene and identified him. After seeing the body of Maj Moshrraf his mother fainted and his wife burst into tears.
"Over 6,000 members of the army and fire service are now working inside the BDR Headquarters in search of more bodies of the army officers who are still missing after the carnage," Brig Gen Abu Nayeem Md. Shahidullah said. He also said that over 150 fire servicemen are now involved in rescue operation.
"Members of the fire service are now looking for more graves inside the BDR compound," he said.
Replying to a query, he said that the fire servicemen yesterday recovered four SMG, one pistol, one rifle, huge number of cases of grenades and a large quantity of ammunition from different parts of the BDR headquarter.
He also said that the fire servicemen had also recovered several RJS grenades, firearms and a huge quantity of ammunition from the BDR headquarters on Thursday and Friday.
The seized firearms and ammunition were handed over to Bangladesh Army, he added.
Major Motiur Rahman, director, development, training and planning of the Fire Service and Civil Defence said, "We have learnt from the BDR jawans, who are now inside the BDR headquarters that there are mass graves near Mazar area adjoining the Central JCO Mess and we are now searching for the graves."
He said, "We found a place at Mazar area adjacent to a pond near swimming pool at the BDR headquarters where something was burnt. We suspect that some human bodies might have been burnt there. But it is yet to be confirmed."
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