The bodies of six Bangladeshi peacekeepers killed in a drone attack on a United Nations peacekeeping base in Sudan's Abyei region were returned to Bangladesh today.
The remains reached Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka on an Emirates Airlines flight, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said.
The Chief of General Staff of the Bangladesh Army, Lieutenant General Mizanur Rahman Shamim, received the bodies at the airport. Senior officials, including the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh, the acting UN resident representative in Bangladesh, representatives of the UN mission in Abyei, the Force Commander of UNISFA, and senior military and civilian officials, were present.
A one-minute silence was observed, followed by a military salute in honour of the fallen peacekeepers, ISPR said.
The bodies will be taken to the Central Mosque at Dhaka Cantonment tomorrow (December 21) for a prayer service. They will then be flown by helicopter to the soldiers' respective hometowns for burial with full military honours.
In the same attack, nine other Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured. Eight of them are receiving treatment at the Aga Khan University Hospital, a Level-3 facility, in Nairobi, Kenya, and are in stable condition, according to ISPR.
Earlier, the Bangladesh Army said a separatist armed group carried out the drone attack on the Kadugli Logistics Base under the UN peacekeeping mission in the Abyei area on December 13, killing six peacekeepers and injuring nine others.