BDR Mutiny : Last Moments of a Brilliant officer Col Guzar

Colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, lauded for his role as a RAB official in the drive against militants, waited a long time for his colleagues to arrive and save his life from the brutal hands of the BDR rebels at Peelkhana.

On February 25, in his first call at 9:38 am to RAB intelligence director Lieutenant Col Majid, he sought help for himself and the other officers under attack. After that he dialed the T&T number of RAB Director General, Hasan Mahmud Khandaker. He also made telephone calls to ADG of RAB and Commanding officer of RAB-2 and discussed plans for a storm operation.

Colonel Gulzar also made four more telephone calls to Army headquarters seeking urgent help. The duration of the calls was for 31 seconds, 55 seconds, 48 seconds and 101 seconds respectively. And finally he called some of his trusted RAB officials and waited for the troops till he was gunned down.
It was learnt that two troops from the RAB headquarter and RAB-2 headed for Pilkhana after receiving calls from Gulzar at 10:38 am. He informed them that he was lying on the Darbar Hall floor at BDR headquarters and the mutineers must have to flee away the scene, if only two platoons of armed soldiers reach the area for the Army’s support, as mutineers were not equipped with too much modern weapons at that time.
At about 11:20 am Col Gulzar had received a message in his cell phone. From 9:38 am to 11:20 am he had made a total of sixteen phone calls to different numbers and urged all to save the lives of the army officials including him.
Meanwhile, two RAB troops of 300 members reached BDR gate number 4 by 10:00 am and waited for government order to start operation against the BDR rebellious team.
Finally the government handled the 33-hours long mutiny ’successfully’, but was failed to save the talented army officers like Col Gulzar, who had served the nation courageously till death.
Col Gulzar, embraced the death with a believe that the rescue teams will arrive soon and save his life from the inhuman killing. But in stead of a an alive Gulzar, an unidentifiable body of Gulzar was recovered by digging a ditch 10 days after the mutiny and was identified by a DNA test on March 10. He was laid to rest on March 11 at the Banani graveyard in Dhaka with his other colleagues, as same as they had fought together to maintain peace across the world.
Colonel Gulzar was posted to BDR in Sylhet in early February. Before being promoted as additional DG of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), he was in the intelligence wing of the elite crime-busting force, and conducted some major investigations. He led the operation that netted JMB operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.