Reports: Border guards launch mutiny in Dhaka
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Mutinous Bangladesh border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital Wednesday and seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people in an insurrection apparently sparked by pay disputes, television reports said.
Gunshots and mortar shells boomed at the well-guarded complex of the Bangladesh Rifles, surrounded by busy shopping malls, colleges and residential buildings, private TV stations Bangla Vision and ETV said.
Officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the violence.
An ETV correspondent reporting live from the scene said guards came out of their barracks and seized a conference hall where officers were meeting. The report said troops of the Bangladesh Rifles, the official name of the country's border guards, chanted slogans for more pay and better facilities.
Several bystanders outside the complex were injured and taken to state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, ETV said.
Some of the troops also stormed out of the complex and seized a nearby shopping mall, ETV reported.
The fighting occurred a day after newly elected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited the headquarters and addressed the troops, urging them to become "more disciplined and remain ever ready to guard the country's frontiers."
Neighbors reported seeing smoke billowing out from the complex.
"The shooting started in the BDR headquarters in the city's Pilkhana area around late morning and hundreds of shots were heard from areas around it," a resident told Reuters by telephone.
BDR spokesman Sajjad Haider said "trouble has been going on but I have no details immediately". (Reporting by Anis Ahmed; Editing by Jerry Norton)
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