Bangladesh mutiny threatens to spread across the country

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian (UK)

Mark Tran and agencies

Prime minister appeals for calm and warns of harsh action against protesting troops

Thursday 26 February 2009 10.04 GMT

Bangladesh today warned of harsh action against mutinous troops while appealing for calm after violent protests by border guards threatened to spread across the country.

"The prime minister has urged all people to remain calm and not to indulge in violence," said Mohiuddin Khan Alaamgir, an adviser to the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, whose government took office only last month.

Shootings were reported at several guard posts hours after officials announced that a mutiny of guards that started in the capital, Dhaka, had ended. Mutineers fired shots at the commanding officer's residence at a border guard post in the southern town of Tekhnaf, forcing him to flee.

Violence was reported in Chittagong and Naikhongchari in the south, Sylhet in the north-east, and Rajshahi and Naogaon in the north-west. In Chittagong, dozens of mutineers blocked a road and forced traffic to a halt, according to a government official. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the new round of violence.

The mutiny began yesterday at the border guards agency headquarters in Dhaka, but the guards agreed to surrender after the government said it would grant them amnesty and discuss their grievances.

=snip=

The guards are nursing long-held grievances over pay, which has not kept pace with that of the army's amid rising food prices.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/26/bangladesh-mutiny