February 25, 2009

Shots fired in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Per Reuters, at least one person has died and six have been wounded as a result of heavy gunfire that "broke out at the headquarters of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in Dhaka on Wednesday."

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. The nation has experienced a number of military coups in its history, both failed and successful, but the reasons behind Wednesday's incident were not immediately clear, according to Reuters. However, AFP is reporting it is not a coup.

Some Bangladeshi tweets on the news have used the hashtag #bdr. The first to note the incident was @niloyphoto.

@niloyphoto (Shitscreek, Bangladesh): One of the lesser armed [Govt.] factions here in Dhaka gone nuts and took over public places and started shooting. #BDR



@TheTravInAzn has been posting pictures from near the scene.

@TheTravInAzn (Dhaka, Bangladesh): All roads closed by cops tottally empty, getting ready for national army on the way http://short.to/1a3c

@TheTravInAzn (Dhaka, Bangladesh): Looks like black smoke from some sort of large explosion? Hand granade? http://short.to/1as8

Another Twitter user in Dhaka has been tweeting developments for the last hour. He told Breaking Tweets he's been gathering information from "relatives and other sources."

@mahmudur (Dhaka, Bangladesh): #bdr The shooting started in the BDR headquarters in the city's Pilkhana area around late morning and hundreds of shots were heard from ...



With the story still developing, Twitter facilitated an international dialogue, as a man in India asked for more information.

@hiway (India): @mahmudur has any info come out as to what caused this? Is it an accident, attack or a sabotage?



@mahmudur responded with his theory on why the attack took place.

@mahmudur (Dhaka, Bangladesh): @hiway #bdr personnel demanding for to increase there salary
pm visited bdr hq day before yesterday and not get any positive feedback
today's incident is the outcome of that

@seoexpertbd also tweeted from Dhaka.

@seoexpertbd (Dhaka, Bangladesh): #BDR Mutiny is panicking people in Dhaka. Rumor for curfew. Stay safe fellow cityzens.

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