Bangladesh News

Life in the city ground to a halt as the news of mutiny at BDR headquarters spread like wildfire, throwing people in a state of panic yesterday morning.

Gunshots ringing out and rumours flying thick and fast left those living or working in Dhanmondi and the adjacent areas numb with fear.

As the day progressed, the entire city was overcome by panic. SSC examinees, students of schools and colleges, and office-goers were the worst sufferers.

Locals watched in horror as army choppers hovered over BDR Pilkhana, smoke billowed from the ground and troops took position along the stretch from Azimpur to Mirpur Road to Jhigatala.

Pedestrians and others who had massed to check things out ran for cover as bullets often found way out of the BDR HQ onto civilians.

Most of the shopping malls in the area were locked and shuttered down and traffic on the roads reduced to a trickle.

Those sitting SSC exams in schools at Azimpur, Nilkhet, Science Laboratory, Jhigatala, Hazaribagh and Dhanmondi areas had to face tremendous trouble showing up at the exam halls in time.

Talking to The Daily Star, many of them said they did not do well in the exam as it was very difficult to concentrate amid gunshots reverberating through the school premises.

Students in kindergartens and junior schools were stuck in classrooms for hours as guardians of many could not go there to pick up their kids because of unsafe road conditions and transport crisis.

“My school closed at 9:40am. But I could not yet contact my parents. I don’t know how I’m going to make it home,” said a student of Azimpur branch of Viqarunnisa Noon School, running helter-skelter on the road, around 10:30am

Like her, hundreds of students in Government Laboratory School, Eden College, Home Economics College, Dhaka College, Dhaka City College, Dhaka State College Jhigatala, Viqarunnisa Noon School, and Kakali High School were rushing home in whatever way they could.

Besides, several hundred students of Kuwait-Maitree Hall and Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib Hall of Dhaka University passed most of the day cowering in the corners of their rooms as bullets fired from distance ricocheted off their walls, sometimes smashing their windowpanes.

Kamrul Nahar, a student of DU Bangla department, and an employee of Kuwait-Maitree were bullet-hit.

“We heard the first gunshot at around quarter past nine. We took shelter at the TV room on the ground floor following instructions of the hall authorities,” Snigdha Boul, a student from Kuwait-Maitree, told The Daily Star over phone.

In the evening, the DU authorities had all the students of those two dormitories shifted to Shamsunnahar Hall and Rokeya Hall.

Eden College and Home Economic Colleges said that their main gate was closed down at 9:20am as soon as spread out the news.

Rumours including the one of placing the capital under curfew prompted a mad dash out of offices and business centres.