 | | 02-25-2009, 07:54 PM |
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| 50 Feared Dead After Border Guard Mutiny in Bangladesh
Quote: Fifty feared dead in Bangladesh
Nearly 50 people are feared dead in Bangladesh after border guards staged an armed mutiny, reports say.
"Nearly 50 people have been killed in sporadic fighting," Mohammad Quamrul Islam, state minister for law and parliamentary affairs, told reporters.
Border guards have begun laying down arms and releasing women and children, hours after PM Sheikh Hasina offered the troops a general amnesty.
The mutiny was said to be over pay conditions and career advancement.
Sheikh Hasina and senior ministers met 14 of the renegade Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) troops at her office late on Wednesday after they were escorted there from their headquarters in the capital, Dhaka.
The prime minister offered the general amnesty and urged the paramilitaries to set free officers they had taken hostage.
She said she would look into their grievances over pay and conditions.
"The guards have begun surrendering arms after we have offered amnesty to them," said Home Minister Shahara Khatun.
About 50 women and children, mainly family members of officers attacked during the mutiny, have also left the compound.
Battle
The mutineers seized the military barracks in the Pilkhana area of Dhaka on Wednesday morning, reportedly taking more than 100 people hostage.
Thousands of police and troops were deployed outside the compound to try to quell the mutiny and the rebels battled troops for several hours.
Exactly how many people were killed and injured remains unclear. A number of passersby were injured when they were caught in the crossfire.
The fate of all the hostages has also not been confirmed. The bodies of two senior officers seized by the renegade guards were discovered dumped in a drain outside the camp earlier on Wednesday.
It is hard to imagine how a dispute over pay could have escalated so rapidly and so violently, says the BBC's Mark Dummett in Dhaka.
One of the mutineers told the BBC that the guards had had to take up arms to resolve problems with their officers.
"Our families might suffer because of what we have done, but they have been exploiting us for more than 200 years," the man said.
| BBC NEWS | South Asia | Fifty feared dead in Bangladesh
I can't imagine the kind of hopelessness that would lead one to commit such an act. This is why we have unions, I guess. __________________  Sunny "The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie |
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