A dangerous hostage standoff ended Wednesday night after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met with paramilitary border troops who had staged a mutiny.
Members of the Bangladesh Rifles were holding at least 60 to 70 officers hostage after a gunbattle inside the Rifles’ headquarters in the capital, Dhaka, government officials said. The gunfire killed at least one person and wounded seven others — most of them bystanders struck by stray bullets, medical officials said. The Bangladesh Rifles, known as the BDR, is a 65,000-strong paramilitary force responsible primarily for guarding the country’s borders. It also takes part in operations such as monitoring polls. Hasina met with the mutineers, promising to listen to their grievances in exchange for an end to the crisis, said Mohammed Sajjad Haider, spokesman for the Information Ministry. “They have several demands,” Haider said. “They want pay parity with the army, they want job security, they want better food rations.” The troops staged their rebellion on the second day of BDR Week, when officers and troops from various BDR outposts along the border were in the capital for celebrations. At least 5,000 BDR personnel were inside the compound in the Pilkhana area of the capital when the mutiny occurred about 7:45 a.m. Wednesday, Haider said. Their mobile phones were turned off, making it difficult for the government to get a handle on the situation, he said. “It’s a serious, serious incident,” Haider said before Hasina got involved. “The gunfire coming from inside is so heavy that no one has been able to go inside.” The mutiny is the most serious crisis for Bangladesh’s newly elected government, which came into power in December after two years of army-backed rule. Curious onlookers gathered outside the compound — only to scramble for cover as gunfire periodically pierced the air. Plumes of black smoke coming from inside the compound could be seen for miles throughout Dhaka. Occasionally, the rebelling troops — red bandannas covering their faces and guns slung over their shoulders — walked past the closed gates of the compound, chanting, “We have been deprived for a long time, we have deep grievances.” “I’ve been hearing gunfire all morning,” said Zunaid Kazi, a San Diego, California, resident who is staying at a house a few blocks from the headquarters. “There will be a little lull and then the sustained gunfire will pick up again,” he told CNN by phone. “I can hear military helicopters in the sky. It’s very rattling.” Watch as Kazi describes what he saw and heard ยป The person who was killed was a rickshaw puller, struck by a stray bullet, said Shefali Borua, a nurse at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
The wounded were other onlookers, among them a tea vendor and a college student, Borua said. Authorities fear they may find more wounded and dead inside the BDR compound.
