Dhaka/New Delhi, Feb. 25: The Bangladesh border force today mutinied apparently over a pay dispute, forcing the army to turn its guns on the country’s first line of defence and saddling the fledgling Sheikh Hasina government with a crisis.

The rebellious Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) — the counterpart of India’s BSF — locked officers in the headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka, opened fire killing at least 12 people and attempted to shoot down air force helicopters before the Prime Minister called their leaders for talks and announced an amnesty for the mutineers.

Among the dead are two colonels who had been bayoneted and a rickshawpuller who was caught in the crossfire between the army and the rebels.

Till late tonight, despite the amnesty offer, intermittent gunfire could be heard from within the headquarters.

Sources said the rebels have laid down more conditions. First, Hasina’s amnesty assurance should be in writing and passed by the parliament. Second, the army, which has surrounded the BDR compound, should be withdrawn.

The mutineers allowed in ambulances late this evening and 15 injured were taken to hospital.

The BDR director-general, Maj Gen Shakeel Ahmed, earlier rumoured to have been shot dead, is said to be alive. “We did not hurt him at all,” a BDR trooper told a television station. “The DG was kept hostage inside and he is safe. We took him hostage after we came under attack.”

The director-general’s mother said from Brahmanbaria, 160km from Dhaka, that she had not heard from her son since this morning.

Some of the mutineers — in full uniform and berets but handkerchiefs masking their faces — told television crews that the BDR soldiery was disgusted with officers who were cornering their benefits. The Bangladesh Rifles is officered by the army but the troops are not always from the defence force.

Elections in Bangladesh in December were held largely because the army was under international pressure to portray that it was the military of a democratic country. It was under threat of sanctions that would have meant fewer opportunities to participate in UN military missions, lucrative for third world countries. Armies in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are among the largest UN troop contributing countries.

Along with disparities over pay and perks with the army, BDR troops were also disgruntled that they were being denied these foreign assignments that would allow them to earn at least a thousand dollars per month — a small fortune in a country that is reeling in poverty.

Non-officer soldiers in UN peace enforcement missions draw about $1,100 per month (about 75,680 Bangladeshi taka or about 54,868 Indian rupees). Officers’ pay is fixed according to rank.

It appears the leadership had no inkling of the gathering storm — Hasina, who rode to power on a landslide in December, had only a day earlier taken salute at a parade at the same base.

The BDR troopers had reportedly asked their seniors to inform Hasina of their three main grievances. One demand was an assurance that army officers would not be sent on deputation to the BDR as they considered themselves “superior” and often “misbehaved” with the border guards.

They wanted a ration anomaly to be removed, too. While BDR personnel get rations (rice, wheat, sugar etc) for three months a year, the army staff on deputation are eligible for the perks throughout the year. The third demand was for permission to go on UN peacekeeping missions.

Hasina apparently was not told of the demands. The simmering discontent broke through this morning while the commandants were holding a meeting. BDR troopers burst into the room.

Unconfirmed reports suggested some angry senior officers might have fired at the juniors, triggering the armed revolt. Attempts by army and air force personnel to enter the BDR headquarters were thwarted by rebel soldiers.

For a few hours since the mutiny broke after 9am, neither Dhaka nor New Delhi had a measure of its dimension. India termed it an “exclusively internal matter” of Bangladesh but kept on high alert its forces along the eastern border. Foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee is understood to have spoken with Hasina over phone.

Initially, reports emerged that BDR soldiers, who guard Bangladesh’s 4,400km border with India and Myanmar, were vacating their outposts that were being taken over by the Bangladesh Army. Frantic calls by the Indian BSF to BDR camps over hotlines were not answered.

The rebellious troopers claimed there were over 20,000 of them at the headquarters, which has an armoury. After a half-a-day-long mayhem, a 14-member team of troopers went to meet the Prime Minister at her official residence.

It is still early to predict what will follow. The dramatic act of defiance can provoke the generals to take on a more high-profile role but such a thrust is expected to stop short of a coup because of Hasina’s thumping majority. Also, a coup will attract the sanctions the army was keen to deflect by holding the elections in the first place.