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.