The gunfight began around 10 a.m. local time, after members of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles took an unknown number of army officers hostage inside their headquarters. Army troops, along with members of a special force called the Rapid Action Battalion, took up positions in the narrow residential lanes surrounding the building.
Around midday, two army helicopters approaching the building were fired on and they swiftly retreated. Three hours into the firefight, the army had not been able to penetrate the border force’s building.
Police told reporters a local rickshaw driver was killed in the crossfire but there was no official confirmation of casualties.
What the apparently mutinous forces want is unclear. Their longstanding grievances include everyday issues like the quality of their accommodations and salaries.
The Bangladesh Rifles are often involved in border skirmishes with their counterparts from India. Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 140 million, is among the world’s poorest and most prone to disasters, both natural and manmade. Its political life has been marked by often violent infighting among political parties, followed by military coups.
The most recent, in January 2007, followed street clashes between members of rival parties and prompted the army-backed caretaker government to declare an emergency. The regime promised to act against corruption and thugs but human rights groups said it also arrested people arbitrarily and, on some occasions, tortured them.
The regime also tried unsuccessfully to sideline the nation’s two leading politicians. One of them, Sheikh Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was elected prime minister by a landslide last December. The elections were widely seen as a vote for a return to democratic rule and secular politics. Mrs. Hasina has promised to quash Islamist guerrilla groups.
On Wednesday, according to Reuters, the Defense Ministry urged the paramilitary troops to put down their guns and start talking. The prime minister “will herself listen to your demands and meet them as much possible,” the Defense Ministry statement added, Reuters reported.
The gunfight came on a day when hundreds of the 42,000 Bangladesh Rifles forces gathered inside their headquarters for an annual conference. Their leaders, all serving army officers, were also present.
What impact Wednesday’s clashes will have on a still fragile civilian government depends on how quickly it is put down and how the mutinous troops are dealt with. “I don’t think it’s a serious threat to the stability of the state, but it’s certainly a serious threat to the security forces and their standing, their place in the structure of the state,” said A.N.M. Muniruzzman, a retired army major general who now heads the Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies in Dhaka. “This is a fragile time, and this could be a very destabilizing factor.
(NEWS from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/26/world/asia/26bangla.html)
Pictures by HIROK From Dhanmondi area
The army Brought Heavy Firearms,Rocket launchers and Anti aircraft guns to fire at the BDR headquarters.
