Nearly 50 people were killed when paramilitary troops in Bangladesh fought among themselves during a mutiny in their headquarters over a pay dispute, a government minister said on Thursday.
The mutinous soldiers have been laying down their arms after accepting an offer of amnesty from the government, but the incident on Wednesday underscores the challenges facing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina won elections in December that returned the impoverished South Asian country to democracy after nearly two years of army-backed emergency rule.
"Nearly 50 people have been killed in sporadic fighting in the headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR)," Mohammad Quamrul Islam, state minister for law and parliamentary affairs, told reporters.
Women and children evacuated
Officials said 50 stranded women and children were evacuated from the mutiny-hit BDR headquarters in the capital Dhaka after the rebels began laying down their arms.
No gunfire had been heard in the early hours of Thursday.
The mutiny erupted on Wednesday when shooting broke out after enlisted men met officers to discuss a dispute over pay and the BDR command structure.
The government responded by sending troops to the BDR complex, and Home Minister Sahara Khatun held two rounds of talks with the mutineers' leaders to defuse the tense situation, after which the troops agreed to lay down their weapons.
"They have started laying down their arms," State Minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak said after speaking by telephone with Sahara, who was at the BDR headquarters overseeing the weapons surrender.
The shooting spilled onto the streets, killing three civilians and wounding several others, witnesses earlier said. Flames rose from the BDR complex and big blasts were heard.
The firing subsided by late Wednesday afternoon but resumed intermittently later.
Hasina meets mutineers
Bangladesh, home to more than 140 million people, has undergone several military coups since independence in 1971, but Wednesday's fighting did not appear to be politically motivated.
Hasina met some of the BDR mutineers on Wednesday in a bid to end the stand-off.
Government minister Jahangir Kabir Nanak said Hasina offered an amnesty to those involved during an hour-long meeting at her residence. One BDR officer said the rebels agreed to surrender their weapons after Hasina promised to meet the group's demands.
Around 2,000 BDR soldiers are usually stationed in the headquarters but it was not known how many joined the fighting. About 500 army troops and hundreds of police and other security forces were deployed to confront the mutineers.
The BDR, whose main duty is guarding the country's borders, is often called in to back up the army and police in meeting other defence and security requirements.
The mutiny broke out only a day after Hasina met senior BDR officers at an annual parade and told them her government would do its best to modernise the paramilitary forces.
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