Bullets buzz in the air
Satmasjid Road had the usual morning traffic at 9:40am. People were rushing off to offices. And then suddenly a loud burst of gunfire pierced through the clamour. Then came a deep, loud noise -- unmistakably of a heavy weapon, a mortar or cannon.
People were surprised and puzzled. A little further, we could see thick plumes smoke billowing out of the BDR headquarters. Ahead, the road was too clogged to move through. We go out of the car, and almost immediately heard a long loud burst of machine gun fire.
By now people knew something terribly wrong was happening.
Crouched, we tried to push further ahead towards the BDR main gate. But then, we saw the BDR men crowding behind the iron bars of the main gate with AK-47s held high. Shots were ringing out from inside the barracks and it was too risky to go any closer. We took shelter behind a pillar of a building.
The road had already turned empty, only a Rab SUV was parked on a Dhanmondi side road. As another round of heavy firing resumed, the Rab vehicle backed out and left the place at high speed. Close to the BDR gate a bus, empty of its passengers, and a police motorcycle lay deserted. The Trust Bank office outside the BDR boundary looked tightly shut. A green car was parked there.
People were now crowding in the alleys -- all looking towards the centre of the commotion. Heavy firings were going on inside the barracks and nobody knew what was happening in there.
Suddenly, there was a big commotion around a slowly approaching rickshaw. A young boy of about 18 was lying on the seat, his body soaked in blood. The boy was in a shock, his eyes fixed on the sky. The rickshaw was almost under siege by a flock of TV cameramen and photographers who would not let go of the photo opportunity.
"Are you humans or just animals?" someone shouted,
"The boy is dying. Let the rickshaw move."
Either for the appeal, or for the sudden big boom of a mortar fire, the crowd thinned out, and the rickshaw moved on. We were all crouched and did not dare to leave whatever cover we had, even in search of a better one. Only if we could cross the road, we could be in relative safety of the Dhanmondi alleys.
A boy tried to do that and fell down spread-eagled. His black hair glistened with red blood. A bullet ricocheted off a building and hit him. He got up dizzy and ran again, all the time holding his wound.
It was 10:30am and the sound of a helicopter rotor attracted our attention. An army Bell chopper was circling high overhead. It kept circling over the BDR complex. As it came for the fifth round, there was an ear piercing noise, and seconds later another. High in the air, there were two white puffs.
"They are firing mortars," an army lieutenant colonel who now serves in Rab, said.
"They are taking shots at the chopper."
We could see the BDR sepoys taking potshots at the chopper with their carbines held high. The chopper disappeared from the sky at high speed.
A brief lull descended. And we took the chance to run with our heads held down, chased by gunfire from behind.
"Take shelter," the Rab official shouted. We were now near the Japan Bangladesh Friendship Hospital.
We looked behind and saw a BDR sepoy holding a machine gun with both hands. And then saw smoke coming out of it with a long sharp rattle. Bullets skidded off the walls of the hospital, hitting a few cooling units of split air-conditioners.
We were now safely behind the hospital. Another injured man in his 20s was carried into the hospital. His left leg dangling, covered in blood. There was no sign of pain on his face, only a dazed look.
It was around 12:00pm and the army had arrived. We could see the army marching down the road towards the BDR headquarters. Immediately there was a spray of bullets from the mutineers, prompting the army men to immediately take cover.
The Rab men knocked open the door of the hospital and we clambered up the fire escape. From the top floor, we had a clear view inside the BDR complex. Two machine guns on wheels were positioned behind the gate. Four BDR men were posted atop a small porch beside the gate. Sepoys were walking up and down the driveway. They were clearly in the line of fire. We could see a truck lumbering in the background. A vehicle was making frequent trips to the gate. We could see ammunition boxes being unloaded. They were fortifying their entrances.
We heard a voice over a megaphone. The mutineers were asking for unity among themselves.
We got down from the building as the Rab men found it too risky. Firstly it was in clear view from the BDR gate, and secondly mortar shells were being fired.
Outside, about 40 to 50 army personnel had arrived with rocket launchers, heavy machine guns and mortars. They climbed over a wall and went into an alley, closer to the BDR barracks. We followed them.
An army officer held a camouflaged megaphone and started urging the rebels to lay down their arms.
The reply was prompt. A burst of machinegun fire swept the street.
AT RISHIPARA, NEAR GATE FOUR
A woman wearing a pink dress stood still against the iron grille of a balcony, unfazed by the intermittent gunfire around her. A little girl in a red dress was also in a similar state whose eyes were fixed on two soldiers guarding the Rishipara boundary of the BDR headquarters. They all were within the BDR compound, as we looked at them from a house just across the road from the boundary wall.
Except the two expressionless faces in a residential quarter of the BDR compound, no other yellow colour residential building seemed to have any sign of life from afar, late in the afternoon.
It seemed that family members of most of the mutinying soldiers had already fled.
"Our lives are not safe here." said a horrified housewife, Fahima, who was running through the street just outside the BDR compound wall along with another woman. They both were fleeing from their homes adjacent to the BDR compound.
Fahima's companion was weeping in fear, as we tried to talk to her she said,
"Please, let us run to safety. Talk to somebody else."
"It has been a terrible experience since the morning. Many frightened wives and children of BDR jawans escaped the scene. One of them was a young mother with a four-day old baby. I had to help her flee," said Arafat, who also lives just across the road from the compound's boundary wall at Rishipara of Jigatala.
He was also visibly frightened.
"They [the BDR jawans] told us to leave our homes if the army enter the residential area," said a man who was also in Arafat's room, a peek through the window, and we saw a BDR jawan on vigilance with a weapon on the other side of the wall.
"We're afraid. We've come to know that the army have taken positions all around the BDR headquarters with heavy weapons. If they start firing, god knows what will happen to us," said elderly Sohrab Uddin, a resident of the neighbourhood.
Less than half a kilometre west of Rishipara, armed soldiers of the army took positions near the Zigatala Kitchen Market roundabout with some taking positions on rooftops, while others on stairwells of residential buildings or behind the walls of the residences.
Anwar was among some 50 persons who were confined by the mutineers for about three hours in Rifles Square shopping mall right next to the Satmasjid Road entrance of the BDR headquarters.
"As soon as we were allowed to leave, bullets started flying like rain. We all just ran," Anwar said.
Anwar appeared normal after being released, but Nazrul Islam, a father of a schoolgirl, was still very worried, as he was stuck now at Dhanmondi Road no 15 crossing. He was in a hurry to pick up his daughter from school.
But an artillery squad of the army already took position with four anti-aircraft guns on the road.
"You will have to cross the road at your own risk. We won't be able to take the responsibility for your safety under the circumstances," a soldier told Nazrul.
The Daily Star - Details News
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