Intelligence and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers have arrested Touhidul Alam following a raid in the capital. He is the prime accused in the events at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters last week according to RAB spokesman M. Kamruzzaman.

The government of Bangladesh  deployed soldiers across the country to hunt for border guards who fled after a bloody mutiny left at least 148 people dead or missing.  Home Minister Shahara Khatun said the soldiers will remain in the field “as long as necessary’’ as they help police and local authorities search for “the fugitive rebels.’’ Police have charged more than 1,000 border guards – many of whom fled as the mutiny faltered – with murder, arson and hostage-taking. 

The deployment comes after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met military officials who were angry with how she handled the two-day mutiny that left the border guards’ compound littered with the corpses of their superiors, who were mostly army officers.

The relationship between Hasina and the military is coloured with mutual distrust. The mutiny – the largest challenge she has faced since assuming power two months ago – threatens to deteriorate relations even further, and has raised questions about the stability of the government. Impoverished Bangladesh has seen nearly two dozens successful and failed military coups in its 38-year history.

Earlier in the day, air force jets flew overhead in salute as Bangladesh held a mass state funeral for 49 army officers and one family member killed in the insurrection. President Zillur Rahman and army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed led thousands of mourners at funeral prayers at a national parade ground in the capital, Dhaka.

Fifty flag-draped coffins, including two with remains of border guards chief Maj-Gen Shakil Ahmed and his wife Nazneen, were later carried away for burial at a graveyard near military headquarters.  Hasina’s government said it plans to form a tribunal to try those who organised last week’s mutiny, which she has called “a planned massacre’’ that may have received outside help.

The revolt finally ended after negotiations, promises of amnesty and threats of military force. The government later withdrew its promise of amnesty for those directly responsible for the killings as it sought to repair its increasingly tense relations with the military. Only 33 army officers are known to have survived the uprising that began on Wednesday at the Bangladesh Rifles border force headquarters, where as many as 181 officers were present for an annual meeting. Rescuers have recovered 77 bodies, while 71 officers were still unaccounted for and presumed dead.

The rebellion apparently erupted over the guards’ long-standing demands for parity in pay and other perks enjoyed by army officers, who lead the border forces. The charges filed on February 28 named six border guards – including a deputy assistant director who led a team that negotiated the surrender with the government – and left more than 1,000 unnamed. Thousands of border guards were at the headquarters when the mutiny began on February 25, 2009, out of a total force of 67,000.

Some questioned whether the border guards acted on their own. Ruling party spokesman Syed Ashraful Islam said initial evidence suggested without elaborating that the mutinous guards may have had outside assistance.