Bangladesh guards rebel for better pay, report says

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Mutinous Bangladesh border guards opened fire at their headquarters in the capital today and seized a nearby shopping mall, injuring several people in an insurrection apparently sparked by pay disputes, television reports said.

Gunshots and mortar shells boomed at the well-guarded complex of the Bangladesh Rifles, surrounded by busy shopping malls, colleges and residential buildings, private TV stations Bangla Vision and ETV said.

Officials could not be immediately reached for comment on the violence.

An ETV correspondent reporting live from the scene said guards came out of their barracks and seized a conference hall where officers were meeting. The report said troops of the Bangladesh Rifles, the official name of the country’s border guards, chanted slogans for more pay and better facilities.

Several bystanders outside the complex were injured and taken to state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital, ETV said.