DHAKA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi rescue team is searching for the army officers who have been missing after the revolt incident staged by paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at the BDR headquarters here on Wednesday.
About 2,000 members from the Army, Police, Rapid Action Battalion and Fire Brigade are searching inch by inch in the BDR headquarters, trying to find all the bodies of army officers who were killed in the revolt.
Fire Service and Civil Defence Director General Abu Nayeem Md. Shahidullah told Xinhua on Saturday at the BDR headquarters that they found three mass graves on Saturday morning, and recovered 10bodies including 9 army officer's and BDR chief Shakil Ahmed's wife's.
Shakil Ahmed was also killed in the revolt and his body was recovered on Friday.
Shahidullah said they are searching all the corners at the headquarters in order to find the bodies of the missing army officers.
According to an unofficial figure, around 40-50 army officers are still missing.
Thousands of BDR soldiers staged revolt against their army officers on Wednesday morning over salary and other benefits.
The revolt came to an end on Thursday evening after a series of talks between the rebel soldiers and government officials.
The army personnel were seen Saturday searching in the grass and the fire fighters were seen opening all the well covers to check if there is any sign of bodies.
One rescue group even managed to remove a heavy cement slab to check if there are bodies buried underground. They searched, but found no trace of bodies.
Abu syed Golam, a retired Air Force officer, was looking for his son who is a major at BDR headquarters.
Abu hasn't got any information of his son since he left home for BDR headquarters on Wednesday morning.
"He must have been killed by the rebel soldiers," he said, adding "I was shocked by the killing of the rebel soldiers. It is so heinous and barbarous."
Abu was satisfied with the rescue work. He hoped to find his son soon.
The death toll of the revolt has risen to 81 on Saturday with the 10 new recovered bodies. Most of the victims are BDR army officers, the rest including family members of the army officers, rebel soldiers and civilians.
The Bangladeshi government Friday announced a 3-day national mourning from Friday to Sunday to mourn the revolt victims.
The government Friday also decided that all the slain army officers will be buried with state honor.
BDR, whose main task is to protect the country's borders, is under Home Minister, but its senior officers are all from the Army. Many BDR soldiers complained they have been ignored and repressed by their army officers for a long time.
Investigators are examining turbulence as one of the possible causes of the Turkish Airlines crash that killed nine people and injured more than 100 near Amsterdam's main airport, a spokesman said Saturday.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority investigation team, also said the wreckage that has lain in a field since it plunged out of the sky Wednesday could be moved Sunday evening.
Local mayor Theo Weterings told reporters Saturday that the runway the Turkish plane was trying to land on would be reopened Sunday night for the first time since the crash. The plane, carrying 135 passengers and crew from Istanbul, crashed one mile (1.5 kilometers) short of the runway.
A Turkish pilots' group claimed that turbulence from a large plane landing at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport shortly before the doomed flight may have caused the crash.
Turkey Airline Pilots' Association Secretary-General Savas Sen said late Friday that a large Boeing 757 had landed at Schiphol Airport two minutes earlier. Sen said that plane most likely created "wake turbulence" that hampered the Turkish aircraft's landing.
Wake turbulence forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air.
"All possible causes are (being) investigated and turbulence is known to have caused problems in the past, so you never know," Sanders said.
The investigators on Saturday continued to analyze flight data and cockpit recordings retrieved from the Boeing 737-800's "black boxes" and hope to be able to give a preliminary cause of the crash next week.
In Istanbul, the head of Turkish Airlines' board of directors paid tribute to pilots Hasan Tahsin Arisan, Olgay Ozgur and Murat Sezer and flight attendant Ulvi Murat Eskin at their funerals.
Candan Karlitekin said that, of the 135 people on board, 126 survived due to the pilots' skills.
"It was a miracle but a sad miracle," Karlitekin said in a teary address. "They saved the lives of 126 people and made their families happy, but they died themselves."
Local health official Peter Koehne said 44 survivors remained hospitalized Saturday and one was still in critical condition.
Boeing Co. said late Friday that three of the American victims were its employees and a fourth Boeing worker remained hospitalized.
Authorities did not release the identity of the other American and Turk killed.
Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch agency investigating the crash, has said that the plane fell almost vertically from the sky, which pointed toward its engines having stopped. He said a reason for that had not yet been established.
Other possible causes under investigation include weather-related factors, insufficient fuel, loss of fuel, navigational errors, pilot fatigue or bird strikes.
Witnesses on the ground said the plane dropped from about 300 feet (90 meters). It smashed into three pieces as it skidded to a halt in the mud but there was no fire.
The airline also denied reports that the plane, which was built in 2002, had had technical problems in the days before the accident. The plane underwent routine maintenance Feb. 19, and had to delay a flight Feb. 23 — the day before the crash — to replace a faulty caution light.
Congress has agreed to a timetable for troop withdrawals in Iraq after years of bitterly debating whether to set one.
The general consensus came Friday in the form of statements endorsing President Barack Obama's plan to bring home roughly two-thirds of the U.S. military force in Iraq by August 2010.
It was a compromise of sorts for the Democratic president, who campaigned on the promise of bringing every soldier and Marine home from Iraq within 16 months of taking office in January. His plan paves the way for some 100,000 troops to come home and as many as 50,000 troops to remain behind to train Iraqi forces and protect U.S. interests.
Not everyone was happy. Democratic leaders have suggested the 50,000 figure was too high and their more liberal colleagues swiftly rejected it. Republican leaders demanded assurances the plan would be abandoned if security conditions worsened. At least one conservative cast the timeline as arbitrary and dangerous.
But in the end, the Congress that could never agree on how to win the Iraq war found common ground.
Obama's announcement is "good news, because it signals that the war is coming to an end," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, who sparred with Obama on the merits of a timetable for the war in a bid for the presidency: said Obama's plan "is one that can keep us on the right path in Iraq."
The consensus was driven largely because conditions in Iraq have improved and public outcry on the war has been far less acute. Democrats are less likely to hear from angry voters demanding a firmer stance to end the war, whereas Republicans are able to say the timetable has the endorsement of military commanders.
Last year, under pressure to replace a U.N. mandate authorizing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq, President George W. Bush agreed with Iraq that American troops should leave Baghdad and other cities by the end of June and all U.S. forces should be gone by the end of 2011.
Democrats are casting Obama's plan as an acceleration of that timeline. But the plan still leaves behind a large enough residual force behind to appease Republicans, who warn security gains could be lost if troops leave too soon.
"After all the tragic losses of life, after the hundreds of billions of dollars spent, after all the other costs our country has absorbed as a result of the conduct of this war, we are finally on a path to success," McCain said.
Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that his country's security forces have been tested and shown they are ready to take over. Nouri al-Maliki also said Obama agreed in a phone call Friday about the need to provide Iraq with more military equipment and weapons to fight insurgents and foreign threats.
Al-Maliki said the U.S. mission in Iraq "will change completely" by the end of August 2010 and the Iraqis would be prepared.
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- The deadly rebellion that took place at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in the Bangladesh city of Dhaka has prompted mass unrest, sources say. The Bangladesh government says border guards have laid down their weapons after two days of street fighting for better pay and new bosses.
A government spokesman says the situation is now completely under control. But while the gunfire appears over in the capital, Dhaka, the situation in other parts of the country is unclear.
The government announced that the mutinous guards fully surrendered Thursday after military tanks rolled into the capital to back up Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's warning that the the guards would face "tough action" if they did not give up.
The mutiny began Wednesday at the Dhaka headquarters of a paramilitary unit called the Bangladesh Rifles. Officials say 50 people may have died in the violence.
A representative for the guards said they were surrendering because the prime minister agreed to look into their demands for better conditions.
Ms. Hasina offered to pardon the guards if they peacefully returned to their barracks. It is unclear whether the amnesty would apply to the paramilitary forces implicated in the killing of their superior army officers.
The guards' main job is to guard the country's borders, but they also can serve as backup for the army and police.
The home minister in neighboring India, Palaniappan Chidambaram, says that country's Border Security Force will remain vigilant.
Tanks rolled through the Bangladeshi capital Thursday in a show of force that finally persuaded mutinous border guards to lay down their arms and end a two-day revolt that had threatened to spread across the impoverished South Asian nation.
At least 11 people were killed in the insurrection after the guards opened fire on their senior officers and seized their headquarters to protest poor pay and conditions.
The guards had agreed overnight to surrender after the government promised them an amnesty and agreed to look into their demands.
But as the process stalled and the revolt looked to be spreading to other areas Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stepped in to warn the rebels she would "do whatever is needed to end the violence."
Hours later, tanks and armored vehicles with heavy machine guns rolled into the capital, taking up positions in residential neighborhoods around the border guards' compound. An Associated Press reporter saw several tanks stationed in a playground.
Apparently intimidated by the move, the guards hoisted a white flag on Thursday afternoon and resumed laying down arms.
"All the mutinous border guards have surrendered their weapons," government negotiator Mahbub Ara Gini told reporters, adding that all military officials with their families trapped inside the headquarters had been evacuated.
Home Minister Shahara Khatun said police then took control of the compound. She said no more bodies had been discovered on the compound. Officials had earlier said they feared up to 50 people were dead.
Border guards first mutinied Wednesday. Then on Thursday, despite an agreement to surrender, the insurrection began to spread to other border guard units across the country. In one instance mutineers fired shots at the commanding officer's residence.
But after Hasina's address to the nation, violence petered out and no further incidents were reported.
"We don't want to use force to break the standoff," Hasina said. "But don't play with our patience. We will not hesitate to do whatever is needed to end the violence if peaceful means fails."
At least 11 people have been confirmed dead in Dhaka. On Thursday, the bodies of eight border guards — all of them of officers — were found outside the violence-wracked headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles, doctors at a local hospital said.
The insurrection was the result of longtime frustrations over pay for the border guards that didn't keep pace with that of the army's — highlighted by rising food prices in the chronically poor South Asian country as the global economic crisis grows.
Their resentment to the army has been heightened by the practice of appointing army officers to head the border guards. They are also not allowed to participate in lucrative U.N. peacekeeping missions.
The army plays a pivotal role in Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people, and only recently let the country return to civilian rule.
There is also a history of military coups and political assassinations. Two of the country's presidents have been slain in military takeovers, and there have been 19 failed coup attempts since the country gained independence from Pakistan in 1971.
An emergency worker walks past the engine of the crashed Turkish Airlines passenger plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. Photograph: United Photos/Reuters
Investigators are sifting through the wreckage of a Boeing 737 that plummeted into a field near Amsterdam's Schiphol airport in an attempt to find clues to what caused the crash, in which nine people died and 86 were injured.
Dozens of safety officials and police worked overnight at the scene of the disaster in the hope of discovering evidence that could help explain why the pilot lost control of the Turkish Airlines plane seconds before it hurtled to the ground.
An airport spokesman confirmed today that three Britons were on board the flight. They are believed to be Susan Lord and her daughters Sofia and Lisa Labeij, who were travelling to the Netherlands with Jakavus Labeij, the girls' Turkish father. All are thought to have escaped without serious injury.
Of the 125 passengers who survived the crash, six are critically wounded, officials said. Four of seven Americans on board were Boeing employees, Haarlemmermeer mayor Theo Weterings told a press conference at the airport.
The flight's data recorders and voice tapes have been sent to Paris for examination and investigators said they expected the results within days. A separate team is working on location in the field near runway 18R, where the plane hit the ground and smashed into three pieces.
Fred Sanders, a spokesman for the Dutch Safety Authority, which is leading the inquiry, said the damage to the aircraft supported witness statements that it had hit the ground tail-down.
"This may indicate that the plane had lost its forward momentum, that there was no motor function," he said, cautioning that it could be a long time before a full explanation was available. "We will have an official finding probably in about a year, but we should be able to give an interim finding within weeks," said Sanders.
This morning the Turkish news website Hurriyet.com raised questions about the technical record of the aircraft, quoting sources who said it had been sent for repairs twice last week, undergoing maintenance on 18 February for a failure detected in its flaps, and again on Monday, when its "master caution" lights burned out. Those reports could not be confirmed.
Other theories behind the crash, including birds being sucked into the engine and the plane running out of fuel, appeared to be dismissed by investigators. "The cause of the crash is not yet known, and we have no hypothesis at this stage," said Rob Stenacker, a spokesman for Schiphol police.
The pilot of Flight 1951, Hasan Tahsin Arisan, who was one of three crew members to die in the crash, was an experienced former officer in the Turkish air force. There was nothing in the weather to indicate problems – aside from a slight mistiness, visibility was clear at 5,000 yards. The Boeing 737-800 model has an unblemished safety record.
Today's Turkish newspapers are critical of Turkish Airlines and the government's handling of the crisis. Initial statements claimed all passengers and crew had survived the crash. It was only hours after that the full extent of the casualties became clear. One newspaper labels the mix-up a scandal, while another writes that the aftermath "turned from celebration to torture".
A Turkish Airlines plane with 135 people aboard slammed into a muddy field while attempting to land at Amsterdam's main airport Wednesday. Nine people were killed and more than 50 were injured, many seriously, officials said.
The Boeing 737-800 broke into three pieces on impact about two miles (three kilometers) short of a runway at Schiphol Airport. The fuselage split in two, close to the cockpit, and the tail broke off. One engine lay almost intact near the wreck in the muddy field. The other was some 200 yards (meters) from the plane and heavily damaged, an Associated Press photographer at the scene said.
Flight TK1951 left Istanbul's Ataturk Airport at 8:22 a.m. (0622 GMT, 0122 EST) bound for Amsterdam, then crashed at 1031 a.m. (0931 GMT, 0431 EST).
Authorities say they have found the flight data recorders of the plane.
Fred Sanders of the Dutch Safety Board said Wednesday afternoon, "The recording equipment has been found." He said it would be sent to Paris for analysis.
Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim said it was "a miracle" there were not more casualties.
"The fact that the plane landed on a soft surface and that there was no fire helped keep the number of fatalities low," he said.
Survivor Huseyin Sumer told Turkish NTV television he crawled to safety out of a crack in the fuselage.
"We were about to land, we could not understand what was happening, some passengers screamed in panic but it happened so fast," Sumer said. He said the crash was over in five to 10 seconds.
The fact that the plane landed in a muddy, plowed field may have contributed to making the accident less deadly by absorbing much of the force of the hard impact, experts said. It may also have helped avert a fire resulting from ruptured fuel tanks and lines on the underside of the fuselage, which appeared to have suffered very heavy impact damage.
Hours after the crash, emergency crews still swarmed around the plane's cockpit.
At first, the airline said everyone survived. But at a news conference later, Michel Bezuijen, acting mayor of Haarlemmermeer, reported the fatalities.
"At this moment there are nine victims to mourn and more than 50 injured," he said. At least 25 of the injured were in serious condition and crew members were among those hurt.
He said there was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.
Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency said pilots Hasan Tahsin, Olcay Ozgur and Murat Sezer were not injured. The agency quoted Turkish civil aviation officials but did not identify them by name.
The Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands, Selahattin Alpar, told Anatolia there were 72 Turks and 32 Dutch people on board. There was no information on the nationality of other passengers.
Candan Karlitekin, the head of the airline's board of directors, told reporters that visibility was good at the time of landing.
"Visibility was clear and around 5,000 yards (4,500 meters). Some 550 yards (500 meters) before landing; the plane landed on a field instead of the runway," he said.
"We have checked the plane's documents and there is no problem concerning maintenance," he added.
Turkish Airlines chief Temel Kotil said the captain, Tahsin, was very experienced and a former air force pilot. Turkish officials said the plane was built in 2002 and last underwent thorough maintenance on Dec. 22.
Jim Proulx, a Boeing spokesman, said the company was sending a team to provide technical assistance to Dutch safety officials as they investigate. He declined to comment on media reports that at least four Boeing employees were on the plane.
Boeing's 737 is the world's best-selling commercial jet, with more than 6,000 orders since the model was launched in 1965.
The 737-800, a recent version of the plane, has a "very good safety record," said Bill Voss, president of the independent Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia.
"It has been involved in a couple of accidents, but nothing that relates directly back to the aircraft," he said, adding that the plane had the best flight data recorders, which should give investigators a rich source of information about the crash.
Gideon Evers, spokesman of the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations, said the cause of the crash remained unclear. There was no indication that the crash had anything to do with fuel levels, Evers said, adding that regulations require all commercial flights to carry ample reserves.
"Certainly it appears to be an unusual circumstance, but as always the sensible course of action is to wait for the results of the investigation," he said.
According to mandatory limits, a passenger airliner must carry sufficient fuel to get to its destination, remain in holding patterns for 45 minutes, possibly divert to an alternate airport, hold for another 45 minutes, and then carry out a normal approach.
The initial impact with the ground appeared to have sheared off the hot engines, which could have ignited leaking fuel, and the loose soil would have absorbed it — further decreasing the risk of fire.
The Dutch government pledged a swift investigation.
"Our thoughts go out to the people who were in the plane and of course also to those who are now waiting in uncertainty to hear about the fate of their loved ones," a government statement said.
Wim Kok, a spokesman for the Dutch Anti-Terror Coordinator's office, said terrorism did not appear to be a factor.
"There are no indications whatsoever (of a terror attack)," Kok said.
