Wednesday, February 25, 2009

War will continue until demands are met: mutineers

“If the prime minister do not meet our demands, declare amnesty and withdraw army, our war will not end,” said a BDR jawan inside the BDR headquarters at Pilkhana.

Talking to reporters, many BDR jawans uttered the same demands and urged the prime minister and home minister to come. “We want to tell them that we need freedom.”

“Everybody knows how miserably we live. We cannot work independently. We don’t have a department of our own.”

They also demanded all BDR officers including the ones at Pilkhana be withdrawn.

“We have no problem to surrender our arms. But we won’t turn ourselves in until our demands are met, and this war will continue.”

“If the prime minister and the cabinet come here, we will make an arrangement for their safe arrival. We will tell them our demands. They have to promise us that our demands would be met."

The BDR jawans claimed that there were up to 20,000 BDR soldiers inside the headquarters.

“If necessary, all of these 20,000 soldiers will embrace martyrdom for their demands.”

In a message on a piece of paper which was thrown out to journalists through BDR gate-4, mutinous jawans urged people to stand beside them and extend their cooperation, UNB reports.

“We’ve taken up arms today because we’ve been repressed by army officers for long,” the mutineers’ message reads.

“Our rights were snatched away and our back was pushed to the wall. Stand beside us,” says the message of the rebels holed up inside the HQ cordoned off by army and RAB troops.

The angry soldiers said one officer was killed and some others were injured. But they did not name the officers.

“We will free them after the prime minister and the home minister fulfill our demands.”

The BDR members demanded the armoury and tanks be taken back for any type of talks.

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