Army was about to attack Pilkhana twice

Army troops with heavy arms and ammunition had been ordered twice to drive into Pilkhana headquarters to quell the mutinying BDR soldiers but the decisions were cancelled for the sake of negotiation with the rebels, according to three army officers who testified in a court yesterday.
The army commandos of 46 Independent Infantry Brigade stood ready in Dhanmondi with tanks and armoured personnel carriers in a distance on February 25 evening, they said. The next day, they were ordered twice to launch attacks, but the plan was cancelled, they added.
"In the first place, 17 East Bengal Company took position in front of Japan Bangladesh Friendship Hospital around 10:15am with 106mm Recoilless Rifles, machineguns, light machineguns, 60mm mortars, GF rifles and rocket launchers," said Col Mohammad Abdul Alim Tarafder.
Two companies joined them within hours, but they were ordered to hold back fire, he said. The troops retreated to Abahani Math around 9:30pm after politicians started trying to negotiate and finally made the mutineers surrender on the same night later, he added.
Col Tarafder, who was the then chief of 17 East Bengal Company, testified in the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court, dealing with the Pilkhana carnage case, alongside Big Gen Md Abdul Hakim Aziz and Lt Col Waker-uz-Zaman of 46 Independent Infantry Brigade.
A total of 74 people, including 57 army officers, were killed by the mutinous soldiers of defunct BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) on February 25-26, 2009.