Dhaka: Bangladesh border guards on Wednesday staged a dramatic armed mutiny over a pay dispute, opening fire on superior officers at their headquarters here leaving six persons, including two Army officers, dead and over 25 wounded in the first major challenge to the Sheikh Hasina government.

The mutinous guards late in the night agreed to surrender after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina granted them general amnesty and assured to consider their demands for more pay, additional subsidised food and extra holidays sympathetically.

Portrait of a mutiny: Border guards revolt in Bangladesh

The dead are- two senior army officers Col Mujibul Haq and Col Enayet, a BDR man and three civilians. Both Col Haq and Enayet were bayoneted to death.

Angry over their superiors not taking up their grievances with the Prime Minister, the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) soldiers revolted during a 'Darbar' or meeting with senior officers, holding some of them, including the paramilitary force's chief Maj Gen Shakil Ahmed, hostage.

BDR: 'The vigilant sentinel'

Gunfire shots were heard through the day from inside the BDR headquarters and barracks housing 20,000 paramilitary troops in Pilkhana area in the heart of Dhaka despite the general amnesty announced after her talks with a 14-member delegation of the rebels.

Hasina also asked them to immediately go back to barracks laying down their weapons.

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