An apparent end to the 'jungle rule' enforced by four infamous gangs in 100 square kilometres came by another jungle rule. Lynching on the sidelines of a police-coastguard operation turned the char villages a ghostly place where blood flows to avenge blood.

Unmindful of the violence, locals say they were preparing to celebrate 'the liberation of the dark zone' in the month of Bangladesh's liberation.

"We'll celebrate independence in a befitting manner in this liberated zone this year," said Sabbir, a university student from Samirhat in Char Jabbar Police Station.

The gangs ran supreme in their fiefdoms where they killed people, looted their houses, extorted money and abducted and raped women at will.

These landless people, who arrived from Hatia, Sandwip and surrounding islands, losing their homes to river erosion, found themselves in the middle of nowhere.

"So far at least 200 people have been killed and more than 2,000 women raped by the gangs," said local legislator Mohammad Shahjahan.

"The words of the gang leaders are virtually law in this battered region," said one-time gang operative Hanif.

"Each of the gang leaders command 200 to 300 members equipped with firearms. Each gang has uniform of its own."

"Our gang had red uniform," said Bahaullah, arrested operative of Bashar Majhi gang.

Some influential locals patronised the robbers to capture chars and build fish farms there, locals said.

"They maintained liaison with gang bosses and paid regular tolls to them," said Habibur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Char Jabbar Police Station.

"They used the gangs to occupy lands and maintain their grip on fish farms."

They not only paid money to the robbers, but also supported them with arms and ammunitions," Rahman said.

"They got arms and ammunition supplies from Dhaka, Chittagong and India," he added.

"We did not lease out the lands where the fish projects have been established," said Noakhali Deputy Commissioner (DC) Mostafa Kamal Haider.

He said a process was on to lease out the water-bodies.

Word on the crimes of the gangs, who built their hideouts in deep forest, did not spread across Bangladesh because of the remoteness of the chars.

"The gangs have cut trees on about 43,000 acres of the 60,000 acres forest," said the district administrator.

Locals blamed the deforestation equally on the gang and rangers of the forest department.

The gangs singled out their members and victims from the landless people.

"Our duty was to find out landless people from the char areas and introduce them to our leaders," Bahaullah said.

"Our leaders used to take money from them for letting them settle in the territory and cultivate a certain part of land," he added.

The gangsters took Tk 3,000 to Tk 5,000 an acre, he said.