The Darbar Hall of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) at the city’s Peelkhana which bore the brunt of Wednesday’s bloody carnage now stands as a mute spectator of the horrible incident of BDR revolt.
As the rebel BDR sepoys fired shots from automatic weapons and blasted several grenades targeting their commanding officers from all directions on the day, the single-storied Darbar Hall (conference centre) having valuable glass sheets in its front portion was badly damaged as bullets and splinters pierced through those.
Following the carnage, not a single glass sheet remained intact in the hall. Pieces of glass sheets and furniture were found littered all over its marble-tiled floor.
Even the centre stage and the green room of the hall at the rear as well as the attached toilets were also badly damaged while marks of bloodstains were seen in its adjacent dressing corner.
All the three gates of the Darbar Hall were riddled with bullets and its main entrance was completely destroyed owing to the impact of indiscriminate firing from heavy sophisticated guns by the rebel BDR sepoys.
There were marks of bullet and splinter holes on the walls all around the Darbar Hall with a total accommodation capacity of 3,500 people, where BDR officials from all the 44 sectors across the country assembled on the day for the annual Darbar or conference on the occasion of BDR Week.
Traditionally, a total of 220 officers, five from each of the 44 sectors, along with 2,300 performers of different cultural troupes used to attend the annual Darbar, according to a senior official of BDR who preferred anonymity while talking to this correspondent at BDR headquarters yesterday.
He, however, could not say for sure how many officers and artistes attended the annual Darbar on Wednesday when the bloody and the most tragic incident occurred at BDR headquarters claiming lives of nearly 100 persons, most of them officers.
Brigadier General Abu Nayeem Md Shahidullah, Director General of Fire Service and Civil Defence who was supervising the rescue operation at the BDR headquarters, told The Independent yesterday that there was a restriction on carrying arms by anybody while attending the Darbar. He said if anybody wants to attend the Darbar with a firearm, he or she will have to obtain prior permission.
But, Shahidullah was of the opinion that the massacre of so many unarmed BDR officers by the sepoys bears testimony to the fact that it was a pre-planned killing. "How the BDR rebels could get so many firearms, ammunition and masks at a time when they carried out the carnage in and outside the Darbar Hall?" he wondered.
The Fire Service chief added that there were nearly 6,500 BDR jawans at the headquarters on the day but only 300 jawans were present after the incident that also raised question as to how over 6000 sepoys could flee the spot within the shortest possible time unless the bloody incident was not a pre-planned killing.
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