BDR soldiers in Dhaka. (Reuters)

Dhaka, March 21 (Reuters): Bangladesh will disband its mutiny-hit paramilitary unit and raise a new force to guard its borders, a top security official said today.

A mutiny that began on February 25 at the headquarters of the paramilitary force in Dhaka and then spread to a dozen other towns, killed at least 80 people mostly army officers.

The BDR, responsible mainly for guarding Bangladesh’s more than 4,000km border with India and Myanmar, is traditionally commanded by officers drawn from the army. Bangladesh has a history of frequent coup attempts and political intervention by such forces.

The revolt, which lasted 33 hours and ended after the rebels laid down their arms, stoked concerns over the stability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s two-month-old civilian government.

“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 told a border security officials at Mymensingh, 150km north of Dhaka.

The former chief of the BDR, Major-General Shakil Ahmed, was among the 57 officers killed in the mutiny.

“The BDR which has been maligned by the last month’s mutiny will stand disbanded,” Islam said. Investigators say they had detained 200 rebel troops and identified 40 for their direct involvement in carnage and arson during the mutiny.

He said more 1,800 rebel troops were on the run.

Hasina has pledged to find out the reasons for the mutiny — initially believed to have been caused by disputes over pay and command structure — and its masterminds and perpetrators, and bring them to justice.

The coordinator of separate civil and military investigation teams said the probe was making progress but needed a few more days to complete its work.

“We need some more time to see who were really involved in the conspiracy (for the mutiny),” commerce minister Faruk Khan, the coordinator, told reporters.

Islamist militants are making threats against English-language schools in Dhaka, police said yesterday. Police said principals of several English-language schools told them they had received threatening letters or phone calls from militants.