Bangladesh requests FBI to investigate "foreign links" in border guards mutiny

 DHAKA, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The Bangladeshi government has asked a team of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) working in its capital Dhaka to help uncover any foreign links to last month's border guards mutiny, local media reported on Wednesday quoting the commerce minister. 

  The country's Commerce Minister Faruq Khan, who was also tasked to coordinate the probes into the bloody mutiny, told this to reporters here on Wednesday, private news agency the bdnews24.com said. 

  "We've requested them to help investigate the killings with special emphasis on suspected ties to international organizations," Khan was quoted as saying. 

  Members of paramilitary border force Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) staged mutiny against their commanding officers at the BDR headquarters in Dhaka on Feb. 25 morning. 

  More than 70 people, mostly army officers, were killed during the mutiny which ended on Feb. 26 evening with the surrender of the mutinous BDR members after negotiations between the government and mutineers. 

  "The BDR killings were done to damage the country's economy and the morale of the army," Khan said. 

  A second eight-member FBI team arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday to assist Bangladesh's investigations into the mutiny, bdnews24.com said. 

  Early this month, a two-member FBI team visited Bangladesh after the government sought assistance of FBI and the UK's Scotland Yard. 

  A four-member team of Scotland Yard also came to Bangladesh to help probe into the BDR incident.

Editor: Deng Shasha

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