About 50 dead in Bangladesh mutiny

DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The death toll from the failed mutiny by Bangladeshi border guards Wednesday appears to be about 50, a state minister said.

"It seems that more or less 50 people were killed due to the incident," said Quamrul Islam, the country's state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs.

The minister provided the estimated death toll to reporters Thursday morning outside the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters in Dhaka, Xinhua reported.

Islam visited the headquarters complex along with Home Minister Sahara Khatun to observe the disarmament process of the rebel soldiers, the state-run Chinese news agency said.

"We have arranged safe exit of those who were trapped inside the BDR headquarters," Islam said.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had offered a general amnesty to the mutinous border guards in a bid to end their rebellion.

Hasina met with 14 of the renegade troops at her office in Dhaka after they were escorted there from their headquarters. During the meeting she offered an amnesty and urged the mutineers to set officers taken hostage free, the BBC reported.

Earlier Wednesday, the Bangladeshi army was mobilized to help quell the mutiny as witnesses reported heavy gunfire and mortar rounds reverberating throughout the densely populated Dhaka, Voice of America reported. Smoke was seen rising from the BDR headquarters, where more than 300 soldiers rebelled against senior officers.

Some civilians were feared among the dead and some of the mutineers reportedly had seized a shopping center in the upscale Philkhana neighborhood, Voice of America reported.

The Bangladesh Rifles force is primarily charged with protecting the South Asian nation's borders.

Since gaining independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh has had a history of coups and counter-coups.