Bangladesh to disband border force

Bangladesh says it will disband the country's border force and raise a new paramilitary unit to replace it.The announcement on Saturday came nearly a month after troops of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) staged a bloody mutiny in the capital, Dhaka. "A new border force will be raised soon with disciplined and competent troops, including those not involved in the  BDR mutiny," Brigadier-General Moinul Islam, the new BDR chief, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as telling border security officials at Mymensingh, 150km north of Dhaka. "The BDR, which has been maligned by last month's mutiny, will stand disbanded," he said. More than 70 people, mainly Bangladeshi army officers, were killed in the mutiny at the Dhaka headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles. The incident, which began on February 25, ended after 33 hours when the rebels laid down their arms. The mutinous border guards ambushed their superiors, shooting and burying dozens of them in shallow graves. The ambush was apparently sparked by grievances of poor pay and work conditions.