Tk 50,000 bounty on each fugitive BDR man

Around 950 jawans still absconding

The government has announced Tk 50,000 bounty for handing over to the authorities each fugitive Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) member suspected of involvement in the February 25-26 mutiny and carnage at the BDR headquarters in the capital.

According to a press release of the home ministry yesterday, Tk 50,000 would be awarded to a person who would hand over to a nearby police station or a law enforcement agency an absconding BDR member suspected to have been involved in the massacre

Identity of the person would be kept secret, it said.

Meanwhile, the BDR authorities are yet to prepare a complete list of the fugitive BDR personnel.

Asked about the bounty, BDR Director General Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam however said, "I do not yet know about the announcement of bounty regarding absconding BDR personnel."

In reply to a question, he said a complete list of the fugitives is still to be prepared.

But Criminal Investigation Department (CID) sources said around 950 BDR members are still absconding.

Earlier, Commerce Minister Faruk Khan said the government would publish a book containing photographs and other information on the fugitive BDR men, and copies of the book would be given to all district and upazila authorities, police stations, and law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The BDR mutiny left 74 people, including 57 army officers deputed to the border force, massacred.

The CID is investigating the carnage case while a government-formed committee is probing the incident. Besides, the army is conducting an enquiry.

Meanwhile, two more BDR members yesterday confessed their involvement in the mutiny, and were sent to jail while two civilians arrested earlier were placed on a four-day remand.

The case was shifted to New Market Police Station from Lalbagh police yesterday as the place of occurrence (PO) is in New Market area.

A total of 25 BDR jawans so far confessed their involvement in the mutiny.

CID sources said the two civilians-- shoe trader Delwar Hossain and cosmetic trader Mohammad Sumon-- were arrested under Section 54 of the Criminal Procedure Code for allegedly making provocative statements on February 25-26.

So far, 165 BDR personnel and civilians have been placed on remand and 920 BDR jawans shown arrested in the case.

100 mutineers identified from video footage

Investigators have identified over 100 BDR mutineers by combing through television footage and newspaper photographs, an army officer told on Thursday. Another officer, who gave his name as Major Imran, has said investigators have been analysing the media coverage of the mutiny and have established many of the mutineers' identities. One of those identified was Abdur Rahman Nilu, whose father was arrested in Bogra Wednesday with gold and cash allegedly looted from officers' homes during the Feb 25-26 mutiny at the BDR's Peelkhana headquarters.

DAD Towhid four other rebellion suspects arrested

Five BDR personnel arrested at the Hazaribagh sweepers’ colony in Dhaka are presented before the journalists at the RAB-1 office in Dhaka on Tuesday. From left…Sepoy Zakir, Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Rahim, DAD Towhid, Havilder Azad and Nayek Firoz.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday in a news conference claimed that it arrested five BDR mutineers, including two of the suspected leaders, and exhibited them to the media.
At a media briefing in the Rab headquarters last evening, Col Reza-nur Rahman, additional director general of Rab, said they arrested Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of BDR Syed Towhidul Alam and four others in the afternoon from a house in Hazaribagh of the capital.
But, Rab's claim gave rise to a confusion, as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday informed the parliament that Towhid had already been arrested.
Meanwhile, police kept 18 other BDR personnel confined in Holy Family Red Crescent Hospital.
Neither police nor Rab however were willing to declare them as arrestees.
Hailing from Raipura village under Nolchhiti upazila of Jhalokathi district, DAD Towhid led the 14-member mutineers' negotiating team to the Prime Minister's residence Jamuna.
According to Rab, the four other arrestees are DAD Mohammad Abdur Rahim of Nabinagar upazila in Brhmman Baria, Habilder Azad Ali of Domar upazila in Nilphamari district, Nayek Mohammad Firoj Ahmed of Barisal, and Jawan Mohammad Zakir Hossain of Nandail upazila in Mymensingh.
During the briefing, Nayek Firoj shouted out, "Sir, I was not arrested, I surrendered," prompting Rab officials to declare the briefing over, right away.
Of the five arrested BDR personnel, the names of DADs Towhid and Rahim are mentioned as principal accused in the case filed by Lalbagh Police Station Officer-in-charge Nobojyoti Khisa in connection with the mutiny.
The case accuses over 1,000 BDR soldiers, specially mentioning the names of five junior commissioned (JCO) officers and a sepoy, including the names of Towhid and Abdur Rahim.
The three other named JCOs are DADs Abdul Jalil, Nasiruddin Khan, and Mirza Habibur Rahman, while the specially mentioned accused sepoy is Jawan Selim.
At the end of yesterday's media briefing, Commander SMAK Azad, director of the legal and media wing of Rab, said the arrested five will be handed over to Lalbagh police, and later they will be forwarded to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
CID is the main investigator of the case, and Rab, Bangladesh Army and other government agencies are assisting it, Commander Azad said.
Meanwhile, no one is being allowed to see the 18 BDR personnel including suspected leader DAD Abdul Jalil, confined in Holy Family Hospital in total isolation in one room.
Talking to The Daily Star on February 25, Jalil said he was one of the members of the 14-member mutineers' negotiation team.
Jalil was taken to Holly Family Hospital on February 25 night by rescuers of the Red Crescent Society.
He said he had no bullet wound, but was severely sick.
Abdul Kahar Akond, senior assistant superintended of police (ASP) of CID, who is leading the police investigation, told The Daily Star, "We are still collecting evidence from the crime scene."
Asked about the arrest of the 18 BDR personnel in the hospital, he declined to make any comment.
Replying to another question, ASP Akond said all three probe committees are exchanging information.
Meanwhile, Rab-4 recovered seventy rounds of live bullets from Gonoktuli Sweepers' Colony in Hazaribagh yesterday.

Operation Rebel Hunt won’t harass innocent: army HQ

The army headquarters on Tuesday assured concerned people that no innocent person would be harassed during Operation Rebel Hunt, launched to identify and nab the rebels involved in the February 25 and 26 massacre in the Bangladesh Rifles’ headquarters.

‘The name of the operation itself is self-explanatory. The operation is being conducted only to identify and catch the BDR rebels,’ said Brigadier General Ziaul Hasan, the director of Military Operations, at a press conference in the army headquarters on Tuesday.

He said no innocent person would be harassed during the operation. ‘There is no such intention,’ said Ziaul, adding that the army would cross-check information before making any arrest.

Operation Rebel Hunt launched: Army reaching field level

Army movement in Barisal city on Monday as theOperation Rebel Hunt launched.

"Operation Rebel Hunt", has been launched throughout the country from yesterday to nab the absconding BDR rebels who have fled the Peelkhana headquarters after a mutiny that left nearly 137 army officers killed.The hunt, in which the army, police and elite force RAB will take part, also aims at recovering the missing firearms and ammunition from the arsenal of the BDR headquarters since the revolt.

Nearly 70 army officers are still missing and they were feared to have been killed. About 169 army officers were at the BDR headquarters when the mutiny, most tragic and worst in living history, broke out on February 25 and ended on February 26.

Five unidentified and highly decomposed bodies of the army officials were sent to the forensic department of Dhaka Medical College Hospital for DNA to ascertain their identity. There were nearly 9,000 BDR personnel at the BDR headquarters at the time of revolt. All of them fled the headquarters either with arms or leaving them behind soon after the call of the prime minister to the rebels to surrender their arms on February 26.About 1,000 fugitive BDR men have so far reported to the headquarters, nearest camps and police stations before the expiry the deadline for their surrender at 5 pm on March 1.

Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun yesterday said army has been called out to hunt down the BDR troops who fled the BDR Headquarters during or after the February 25-26 mutiny.

Talking to reporters at her ministry, she said the army will stay at the field until the hiding BDR men are netted. The Home Minister said the army along with police and RAB would hunt down the BDR rebels and recover firearms missing after the mutiny.

Police recovered a sub-machine gun, two grenades, a walkie-talkie and 150 rounds of ammunition from the surroundings of the BDR heaquarters on Sunday and Monday. The arms were abandoned by the fleeing BDR mutineers, police said. Hazaribagh police sub-inspector Ismail Hossain said they recovered the grenades, 70 rounds of SMG ammunition and a pistol magazine holding seven rounds of bullets from behind a school beside the Peelkhana boundary wall on Monday. On Sunday night, they recovered the SMG rifle loaded with 60 rounds of cartridges from a premise of a residential house near the headquarters and the walkie-talkie from a street at Charakghata adjacent to the headquarters. ASP Abdul Kahar Akando, who is heading a 47-member CID team, visited the BDR headquarters yesterday for collecting information. The team also gathered some evidences from the spot.

President Zillur Rahman was among the huge crowd, which gathered at the army parade ground yesterday for the janaza of 50 slain army officers including the BDR chief and his wife.

The government said that it will set up a special tribunal to try those behind the killing spree during the mutiny at the BDR headquarters. The punishment for the guilty is death sentence.Retired civil servant Anisuzzaman Khan will now head the 11-member BDR mutiny probe body.The probe body comprises senior army , police and civil officers.

The names of the home minister and the state minister for law have been dropped from the new probe body. Earlier, a seven-member BDR mutiny probe body was constituted with the home minister as its head.

Police have no record about the BDR personnel who have crossed the border after fleeing from the BDR headquarters and other camps close on the heels of the mutiny. But 700 to 800 rebel BDR men might have crossed the border, informed sources said.