A team of Rab-3 arrested PBCP-ML Secretary Mofakkhar, who also went under the names of Mofa and Arpan, at Rupnagar Residential Area of Mirpur in the capital at around 8:30pm Thursday.

Operatives of outlawed communist outfits see the death as a blow to their two-decade-old underground 'armed struggle' in the country's south and northern regions 'to establish socialism'.

According to Rab, Mofakkhar, who had unleashed a reign of terror in some 10 southwestern and five northern districts, hid recently in the capital.

"We had information that he was hiding in a rented house at Rupnagar and made preparations to arrest him," Lt Col Gulzar Uddin Ahmed, commanding officer of Rab-3, told The Daily Star yesterday evening, adding Mofakkhar rented the house under a pseudo name.

The Rab men cordoned off and stormed the house and caught him without any obstruction. "As our men asked whether he was Mofakkhar, he replied in the affirmative," a Rab source said.

Searching the house, the Rab men seized some sack-full of books, booklets, leaflets, posters and party documents.

During interrogation by Rab-3 officials later at their office, Mofakkhar admitted to having initiated some steps to settle disputes among different outlawed communist parties across the country.

Having confessed his large caches of hidden arms and party cadres scattered in the southern and northern regions, he links to disclosed that the outlawed operatives were scheduled to sit at a meeting in Bhadalia area of Kushtia Friday night, said a Rab statement.

But he did not disclose the names of his comrades, who have taken shelter in the capital, or the reason for their hiding, Rab sources added.

Rab-3 left Dhaka at around 11:30pm Thursday and handed him over to Kushtia Rab.

The Rab statement said a Rab contingent started for Bhadalia from Kushtia early hours yesterday and was ambushed by PBCP operatives in Baliapara field at around 4:00am: "PBCP men opened fire on the anti-crime force, prompting them to retaliate."

According to the Rab release, Mofakkhar tried to jump out of a Rab microbus during the one and a half-hour gunfight and was caught in the crossfire. He died on the spot.

After the end of the shootout, police rushed to the spot and retrieved two foreign pistols and a rifle with 15 bullets from there. They took Mofakkhar's body to Kushtia General Hospital for autopsy.

Fearing backlash against the death, security was beefed up at all vulnerable points and important installations in Khulna City and all the 10 districts of Khulna division. All police stations, outposts and camps in the division have been put on red alert.

Combing operations by law-enforcing agencies including Rab have also been intensified to track down listed PBCP operatives.

Hailing from Fenchuganj in Sylhet, Mofakkhar came to the forefront of PBCP-ML in early '70s under the leadership of Abdul Matin and Alauddin. He served as secretary of the party's central committee until 1999, when he was expelled.

But he continued his political activities under the same banner. Mofakkhar in 2002 expelled a faction led by Abdur Rashid Malitha Tapan and some others from his faction of the PBCP-ML, who then formed the PBCP-Janajuddha, while those who had ousted Mofakkhar named their faction PBCP-ML-Red Flag.

The operatives of Mofakkhar-led outfit killed at least 200 people including politicians, businessmen and rival cadres in the regions in the last two decades.

On January 16 last, he faxed a message to Khulna Press Club condemning the murder of journalist Manik Saha the previous day. But his second-in-command Abdur Rashid Tapu was accused of the killing in the charge sheet. Police caught Tapu in the capital and he died in another alleged 'crossfire' between police and his comrades at Fakirhat in Bagerhat four months ago.

Meantime, getting advance information about a police operation, Shoaib and Sumon, two most-wanted operatives of the PBCP-Janajuddho, managed to escape from a madrasa in Pirojpur Town Tuesday midnight. A prominent Jamaat leader founded the madrasa.