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DHAKA - SPECIAL tribunals will try Bangladeshi paramilitary mutineers who killed at least 80 people, mostly army officers, in an uprising last week, government and military officials said on Sunday.
More than 70 potential victims are still missing after the mutiny by members of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards, which broke out on Wednesday, officials said.
The bodies of officers, and some family members, have been found in mass graves within the BDR compound in Dhaka and in sewers and canals. The mutiny, over pay and command structure, spread to about a dozen smaller towns across Bangladesh.
Witnesses said about 1,000 BDR troops who had fled their headquarters after the two-day mutiny had returned and were having their identities checked outside the complex.
But thousands remain at large, police said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament on Sunday she had ordered police, the army and the elite Rapid Action Battalion to fan out across the country to capture mutineers, and seize any weapons they had.
Police said they had identified up to 1,000 BDR members as suspects, and some could be charged with murder.
Government minister Syed Ashraful Islam said the decision to set up the tribunals was made at a cabinet meeting led by Hasina on Saturday. No details about the tribunals were released.
An investigation led by Home Minister Shahara Khatun has been told to hand down its first findings within a week.
Ms Hasina sought help from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in a telephone conversation with US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher, to investigate the mutiny, Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry said.
'We will punish the killers and their mentors after proper investigation and fair trial,' Hasina told parliament on Sunday.
'We will also seek assistance from Scotland Yard (British police) and cooperation from the United Nations to probe the mutiny.' Parliament unanimously condemned the uprising. -- REUTERS
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