Mutinying BDR soldiers hold top officers hostage

Anisur Rahman

Dhaka, Feb 26 PTI) Heavy casualties are feared as intense
gunfire rocked the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Pilkhana
area here Wednesday after a mutiny broke out in the border
force with renegade soldiers holding their top officers
hostage over an apparent pay dispute.

Though the army and the rapid action force of police had
encircled the BDR headquarters located in the heart of Dhaka,
there was no word on what was happening inside the complex
which was a scene of heavy firing for hours in the morning.

However, one civilian was killed and scores injured in
the gunfire outside BDR headquarters after the rebel soldiers
stormed out and briefly seized a nearby shopping mall.

Speculation was rife that several senior BDR officials,
including its Director General Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, were
among those taken hostage by the mutinying soldiers.

According to local ATN Bangla television channel, the
mutinying soldiers threatened that they would destroy
everything in and around Pilkhana if attacked by the army.

"We have taken all the officers hostage," an unnamed BDR
soldier told the channel. He did not specify the number of
captives or whether there had been any casualties.

He said they would not free the captives unless the
government declares general amnesty for all of them, meets
the rebels' demands and withdraws army from outside the
complex.

BDR soldiers, according to reports, opened fire on their
officers apparently in insurrection sparked by a pay dispute.

Officials said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina convened an
emergency meeting of senior ministers at her official Jamuna
residence and tasked a minister and several other government
leaders to negotiate with the rebels.

After ringing the BDR complex, army issued a stern
warning calling on the mutinying soldiers to "surrender and to
go back to barracks."

Though there were no immediate word on casualties inside
BDR Headquarters, relatives of BDR soldiers inside the barrack
said they came to know that there were heavy casualties.

Officials said army troops were called out to quell the
rebellion as witnesses reported movement of military convoys
and hovering of air force helicopters over the sky of the
Pilkhana barracks.

"The army troops are now chalking out plans to enter into
the barracks where heavy exchanges of gunshots and mortar
shells were still underway," an army source told PTI.

But, officials inside the BDR headquarters could not be
reached as they kept their phones off, with smoke billowing
out of the compound.

People were heard screaming, some of them apparently in
pain, as a senior BDR official opened his cell phone as he
was called by a journalist, but did not speak.

"We are under siege, try to save us," another BDR
official told a journalist and then hung up.

The ATN television said that an unidentified rickshaw
puller was killed and six people, including pedestrians, were
admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital and other
facilities with bullet injuries.

The victims were apparently passing by the BDR barracks
when the bullets hit them. Police have now stopped vehicular
movement around the barracks.

In a statement, the Army's Inter Service Public Relations
asked BDR soldiers to lay down their weapons in the "greater
interest of the country," saying "the Prime Minister herself
will talk to the BDR personnel and listen to your problems."

"But stern legal actions will be taken against you, if
you take law in your own hand even after this call," it said.

Witnesses said law enforcement agencies were clearing the
streets, giving rise to speculation that there could be an
army crackdown to end the rebellion.

TV channels which grabbed some footage from high rise
buildings alongside the BDR complex showed BDR soldiers moving
inside with weapons, wearing red ribbons on their head.

The rebellion came just a day after Hasina opened the BDR
Week celebrations and sources said it could be related to
demands for pay hike, promotion and facilities for soldiers.

Security sources said the rebellion broke out during a
"darbar" or meeting of soldiers with senior officers. PTI AR
PMR
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