At least 3 civilians, 2 officers confirmed dead..............

At least two senior officers and three civilians were confirmed dead in an armed rebellion by Bangladesh Rifles, police and hospital officials said.

Col Mujibul Huq, who commanded the Dhaka Sector and headed the emergency government's Operation Daal-Bhat, was killed at the early stage of the mutiny.

The body of Lt Col Enayet, commander of 36 Battalion, was found alongside Huq's. Both were dumped in a drain behind the BDR compound, Kamrangirchar police SI Ataur Rahman told us.

The head of the border guards—major general Shakil Ahmed—was widely believed throughout the day to be among the dead.

At least three civilians were confirmed dead and over 25 were wounded as heavy gunfire erupted in and around Bangladesh Rifles Headquarters in the morning.


BDR personnel fired shots out of the compound at civilians on at least two occasions in the morning, witnesses and correspondents said.

A bullet-hit rickshaw puller brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital died on arrival there. He was identified as Amjad Ali, 52, who received a bullet in the head.

Khondoker Md Tariq Aziz, 20, was shot near Zigatola and died at the DMCH.

Fourteen-year-old Mohammad Hridoy, a street vendor, was the third civilian confirmed dead. He died on way to the DMCH.

Of the injured, 15 lay at DMCH and 10 at Bangladesh Medical College Hospital in Dhanmondi, hospital officials said.

SI Ataur said the bodies of both colonels were sent to the CMH.

Reports of casualties also came from within the BDR complex, as calls were received by family members on the outside.

School teacher Rajab Ali told us that his brother Md Abul Kashem, a deputy assistant director of BDR, was killed by rifle fire inside the BDR complex.

"My brother's wife told me his body was lying where he fell in front of Darbar Hall," said Ali.

"She said more civilian bodies could be seen lying inside the battle-wrecked BDR complex," he said.

The first shots had reportedly been fired at the Hall Wednesday morning.

Ali quoted Kashem's wife, whom he would not name, as saying her husband had been present at the Rifles Week programme at Darbar Hall in the morning.

"He was shot as he was escaping the gunfire which erupted in the hall, his wife told me", said Ali.

"My brother was living in a flat near Durbar Hall," said Ali.

"My sister-in-law called me by mobile around 2.30pm," he said.

The BDR rebels agreed to surrender their
arms after a two-hour meeting with the prime minister at her official residence Jamuna, state minister for local government Jahangir Kabir Nanak told reporters at a briefing in the evening.