In comments on Wednesday, Hasina said that her own safety was also at risk, describing last week’s revolt by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards as “condemnable”.

Hasina said the 33-hour mutiny was part of a wider plot to destabilise the country.

“Conspiracies against Bangladesh are not over yet … the game is still on,” she said at a seminar speech later published on an online newspaper.

Arrests

About 9,000 border guards rose up against their superiors last Wednesday, with demands for better pay and work conditions.

On Tuesday, security forces arrested Touhidul Alam, who was assistant director of the BDR at the time of the revolt, on suspicion of organising the mutiny.

Alam, who led negotiations with Hasina that helped end the uprising, was arrested along with four other suspected mutineers in Dhaka, the capital.

Soldiers are still on the hunt for more than 1,000 BDR guards believed to be involved in the two-day mutiny.

The police have charged them with murder, arson and hostage-taking.

Coup fears

The large scale of the revolt has led to speculation that it was meant to destabilise the freshly elected government, raising fears over a possible coup in Bangladesh.

The mutiny ended after Hasina met a group of the border guard troops and threatened to put down their revolt by force.

She had earlier offered the mutineers an amnesty, but retracted the offer after it became known that the guards had resorted to large-scale killings of their seniors.

After the premier launched an investigation into the attacks, the army said on Tuesday that it was conducting its own independent probe, a move analysts say underlines tensions between the two.

The revolt came two months after Hasina’s Awami League won national elections, which themselves followed about two years of military rule.

Bangladesh PM fears more attacks

The corpses of at least 66 people were unearthed at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters on Friday, two days after a revolt by hundreds of border guards protesting over pay and conditions.

Al Jazeera’s Nicolas Haque in Dhaka said: “The senior officers killed are just the first out of the mass graves.
“There are flies all over the place, you can smell gun powder. There is an eerie feeling … the smell, the tension and the drama are palpable.”

‘Cold-blooded murder’

Syed M Kamruzzaman, an army officer who managed to escape the guards holding him, told the AFP news agency: “They hurled abuse at us and gunned down whoever they wanted. I was shot at seven times and was lucky to get out alive.

“It was cold-blooded murder.”

More than 230 guards are reported to have been arrested in Dhaka and 68 more near the town of Savar after nearly 2,000 guards opened fire on their officers and seized control of the BDR base.

Haque said: “Government officers often go on strike about pay conditions here, but to kill your superior is quite unusual. The government is asking who is behind this, and is it solely about pay?

“Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the prime minister, had [originally] said the mutineers would be forgiven, but that now looks very unlikely – the attacks have been so brutal.”

Imtiaz Ahmed, a political analyst from Dhaka university, told Al Jazeera: “Initially there was some support for the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), especially on the issue of grievances, but as the killings came to light and dead bodies are being found, there seems to be almost a turnaround.

“Support for the BDR has vanished absolutely. People are shocked at what they’re seeing.”

‘No right to kill’

Checkpoints have been set up across the country and ferries were being searched for fleeing mutineers.

The guards surrendered on Thursday after Sheikh Hasina sent tanks and troops into the streets of Dhaka and threatened to put down the mutiny by force.

Hasina had offered the mutineers an amnesty and agreed to look into their demands, but later said the offer would not apply to those who carried out any killings, adding: “No one has the right to kill anyone.”

Manzoor Hasan, the director of BRAC University’s Institute of Governance Studies in Dhaka, said the mutiny had taken the country and Hasina by surprise.

“It was a bit of a baptism by fire for her. It was a critical test, but I think in the end she tackled it competently,” he said.

The violence is the first major crisis facing the prime minister since she was elected in late December, when Bangladesh returned to democracy after nearly two years of army-backed emergency rule.

Police chiefs across Bandladesh said BDR members had revolted in 15 border districts.

Guards within the BDR have opposed being led by army officers, saying they want commanders to be drawn from their own ranks.

The BDR’s main task is to guard the country’s borders, but it often supports the army and police.

Bodies unearthed after Dhaka mutiny

The news, which is unconfirmed, comes hours after PM Sheikh Hasina offered the troops a general amnesty.

At least five people died and a number were wounded in the mutiny, which was said to be over pay, conditions, career advancement and alleged discrimination.

The rebels battled troops sent to quell the mutiny for several hours.

A number of passersby were injured when they were caught in the crossfire.

Sheikh Hasina and senior ministers met 14 of the renegade Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops at her office late on Wednesday after they were escorted there from their headquarters in the capital, Dhaka.

The prime minister offered the general amnesty and urged the paramilitaries to set free officers they had taken hostage.

She said she would look into their grievances over pay and conditions.

‘Exploiting us’

The mutineers seized the military barracks in the Pilkhana area of Dhaka on Wednesday morning, reportedly taking more than 100 people hostage.

Thousands of police and troops were deployed outside the compound to try to put down the mutiny.

Exactly how many people were killed and injured in the uprising remains unclear. The fate of all the hostages has also not been confirmed.

The bodies of two senior officers seized by the renegade guards were discovered dumped in a drain outside the camp earlier on Wednesday.

It is hard to imagine how a dispute over pay could have escalated so rapidly and so violently, says the BBC’s Mark Dummett in Dhaka.

One of the mutineers told the BBC that the guards had had to take up arms to resolve problems with their officers.

“Our families might suffer because of what we have done, but they have been exploiting us for more than 200 years,” the man said.

Bangladesh mutineers ‘surrender