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Bangladesh border guard mutiny appears to spread
By FARID HOSSAIN,Associated Press Writer AP - 1 hour 34 minutes ago
DHAKA, Bangladesh - A deadly mutiny over pay that began with border guards in the Bangladesh capital apparently spread Thursday, with shootings reported at several guard posts around the country, police and witnesses said.
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Mutineers fired shots at the commanding officer's residence at a border guard post in the southern town of Tekhnaf early Thursday, sending him fleeing, said police official Jalal Ahmed Chowdhury. Witnesses said violence also erupted at border guard posts in Cox's Bazar and Naikhongchari in the south, and Sylhet in the northeast.
The Thursday violence comes just one day after border guards mutinied at the agency's headquarters in Dhaka to demand better pay, but agreed later to surrender after the government said it would grant them amnesty and discuss their grievances.
At least three people are confirmed dead in the violence in Dhaka, but officials fear up to 50 people may have been killed.
The border guards in Dhaka began surrendering Thursday after a 20-hour mutiny that saw guards turn weapons on senior officers and seize a nearby shopping center.
Bangladesh's Home Minister Shahara Khatun received about a dozen automatic rifles from surrendering mutineers at the Dhaka headquarters of Bangladesh Rifles _ the official name of the paramilitary border guards. TV reports showed guards filing out of buildings in the compound and laying down arms one by one.
"The guards have begun surrendering arms after we have offered amnesty to them," Khatun told reporters while leaving the compound, adding that he believed the surrender would be complete later Thursday.
He spoke before the latest round of shooting erupted in other cities. Some 42,000 guards are posted at 64 Bangladesh Rifles camps throughout the country.
The surrender in Dhaka later appeared to slow down, after the minister left, and government officials held a round of talks with mutineers outside the compound Thursday morning in efforts to speed it up, government negotiator Fazle Noor Tapash said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called an emergency meeting of her Cabinet to discuss the situation, her spokesman Abul Kalam Azad said.
The home minister also had overseen the earlier evacuation of about 50 women and children trapped in homes inside the compound since the revolt erupted early Wednesday. They were mostly family members of officers attacked during the mutiny.
The guards had stormed the headquarters Wednesday, opening fire on superior officers at a meeting and seizing a nearby shopping mall. Army troops were called in to surround both complexes, and the guards agreed to surrender when the government said it would grant them amnesty and discuss their demands.
There were conflicting reports about the death toll in the mutiny.
Hospital doctors confirmed that three bystanders, including a rickshaw driver, were killed and about 20 people injured.
But Junior Law Minister Quamrul Islam told reporters early Thursday that "It's our guess at least 50 people may have died" in the violence. His remarks came after a visit to the compound, but he acknowledged that the figure was unconfirmed. "We have not seen any bodies," he added.
The standoff was the result of longtime frustrations over pay for the border guards that didn't keep pace with that of the army's _ highlighted by rising food prices in the chronically poor South Asian country as the global economic crisis grows.
During Wednesday's standoff, one guard in combat dress, his face covered in a yellow handkerchief, emerged from the compound and told television reporters that the army had "more facilities than what we get."
"Army troops are sent abroad to work in U.N. peacekeeping missions and they get fat salaries," he said. "But they don't take border guard personnel for peacekeeping. That's discrimination."
Hasina then met and reached a deal with representatives of the mutineers, and the fighting subsided.
Children trapped in the compound, aged between 5 and 16, were allowed to leave unharmed.
"The prime minister has announced amnesty for those involved in the trouble. We now hope to lay down our arms and go back to barracks," mutineer spokesman Mohammed Towhid said Wednesday.
The revolt did not appear to be political. It stemmed from long-standing grievances among the guards, who primarily protect Bangladesh's borders against smugglers.
Guards rely on government rations of rice, flour and sugar to supplement their incomes of about $100 per month, and food prices have risen some 30 percent in recent months. The guards get the rations for just three months, but regular soldiers receive rations all year.
___
Associated Press writers Parveen Ahmed and Julhas Alam contributed to this report.
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