Bangladesh urges India to catch fugitive rebels
DHAKA, July 14 (Reuters) - Bangladesh has urged India to arrest some 25 fugitive rebel troops believed to have been hiding across the border following a mutiny early this year, security officials said on Tuesday.
Some 25 rebel troops have been on the run since the Feb. 25-26 mutiny in the headquarters of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border guards in the capital, Dhaka. Almost 80 people, mostly army officers commanding the BDR, were killed.
"It is likely that most of the fugitive troops are hiding in India and we need their (India's) help to capture them," BDR chief Major-General Mainul Islam told a joint news conference after meeting the head of the Border Security Force (BSF) of India.
BSF Director General M. L. Kumawat arrived in Dhaka on Saturday for a four-day meeting aimed at reducing cross-border crimes including gunrunning and human trafficking.
It was the first meeting between the two border security forces following the mutiny.
Kumawat did not comment specifically on the Mainul request but said: "Criminals from both sides can hide across the border."
The mutiny, over pay and conditions and command structures, spread to a dozen other towns. The head of the BDR, Major-General Shakil Ahmed, was among 57 officers killed.
The authorities last month doubled a reward to 100,000 taka ($1,450) announced in April for anyone who helps authorities arrest fugitive paramilitary troops.
Investigators said they had detained some 2,000 rebel troops and accuse many of them of involvement in the mutiny. But 25 involved in carnage were still missing.
Bangladesh has a history of coups and military intervention in the country's often chaotic polits. The BDR mutiny stoked concerns over the stability of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's new civilian government, which took charges in January, ending two years of rule by a military-backed interim authority that had suspended a number of political rights.
India has proposed joint patrolling by BSF and BDR of the 4,000 km (2,500 mile) border, a relatively porous one that runs through rivers, hills and marshes, to curb cross border crimes.
"A joint patrolling by both the forces can greatly reduce crimes and trespass across the border," Kumawat told the news conference. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Anis Ahmed and Jerry Norton)
