RAB nabs 'mutiny leader'
Dhaka, Mar 3 (bdnews24.com)--The alleged leader of the murderous Feb 25-26 BDR mutiny, Touhidul Alam, and four others were arrested Tuesday in the capital, RAB said.
"Five including DAD Touhid and DAD Abdur Rahim have been arrested in Hajaribagh," commander AK Azad, director of legal and media wing of the elite Rapid Action Battalion, told bdnews24.com. Rahim was earlier identified as a sepoy.
"It was a joint operation of the RAB intelligence wing and local RAB 2, based on information from another intelligence agency," RAB later said in a statement.
"They were arrested in a residential area near the Methorpatti (sweepers' colony) in Hajaribagh at 5:30pm," the statement said.
The other three arrested were not among those named in the case filed on Feb 28.
RAB gave the three names as Habilder Azad Ali, Nayek Md Feroz Ahmed and Sepoy Zahir Hossain.
Touhidul Alam, a deputy assistant director, had led a rebel team in negotiations with the government during 33-hour mutiny ending Thursday evening.
Two days later, the government sued him and five others, charging them with treason, murder, arson and looting.
The case, filed by the Lalbagh police, was registered Saturday night. A magistrate on Sunday took the charges into cognizance.
Over a thousand BDR men were also charged, but the Lalbagh OC Nobojyoti Khisha did not identify them.
At least 62 army officers were dead or missing in the mutiny, according to the army. Civilians and BDR men were also killed.
DAD Touhid led a team of 14 BDR men to talks with the prime minister at her home on the day the border guards rose in rebellion at their headquarters in the capital.
Touhid also led the renegade BDR men in negotiations that followed with the home minister late into the night.
The other four names that Khisha mentioned in his submission were DAD Nasiruddin Khan, DAD Mirza Habibur Rahman, DAD Jalil (one name given), Sepoy Selim.
"More DADs may be involved with the incident," Khisa had said after filing the case.
Khisa said in his court submission the government had information that the rebel border guards were 'instigated by vested quarters to upset the stability of the state and to make unlawful gains'.
Their action amounted to treason, the court was told.
Police attributed the delay in filing the case to time taken 'to analyse the situation, gather information on the events and complete official formalities'.
After the first round of talks with the rebels on Feb 25, prime minister Sheikh Hasina offered a general amnesty to the BDR mutineers, but later said the pardon would not cover those who directly killed, looted or committed such other criminal acts.
The prime minister told parliament Sunday that the BDR revolt was a "completely pre-planned massacre".
:: bdnews24.com ::