B'desh detains 10 from Myanmar over aid agency kidnap

DHAKA, June 30 (Reuters) Bangladesh security forces have detained 10 Myanmar nationals for suspected involvement with kidnapping of two Bangladeshi staff working for a Danish development agency (Danida), police said today.

The two were captured on Monday by suspected tribal rebels at a village near Thanchi, some 400 km southeast of the capital Dhaka.

Abductors released one of the staff on Thursday and some 500 troops with sniffer dogs were scouring dense forests today to rescue the other.

Mohammad Hanif, a driver for Danida, was released at a remote forest near Thanchi township in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) adjacent to Tripura and Mizoram, eastern states of India and Arakah (Rakhaine) state in western Myanmar.

Various rebel groups have been active in these states for decades on different issues, intelligence sources said.

The detained Myanmar citizen failed to produce any valid travel document and police suspected them of having some link with the abductors.

Bangladesh security forces earlier detained some 20 people for suspected involvement with the kidnapping. The motive behind the abductions was unknown.

''The operation to rescue Danida official Suman Sharif is going on, but without any spectacular development,'' administrative officer M.A.M. Shah Alam said.

Witnesses said helicopters continued to drop commandos into thick hilltop forests today.

The Danida staff had no security escort, which visitors need in remote areas in the CHT, previously the scene of a tribal insurgency, Alam said.

Tribal insurgents seeking autonomy for the 14,000 sq km CHT fought a guerrilla war against Bangladeshi authorities from 1973 until 1997, when a peace deal was struck.

The majority of the 3,000-strong Shanti Bahini rebels surrendered their arms, but a dissident group opposed to the deal melted into the jungle and turned to criminal activities, including kidnappings for ransom.

A British and a Danish engineer working on a road project were detained by suspected rebels for more than a month at Rangamati forest in the CHT in 2001 before being released.

More than 8,500 people were killed and some 70,000 displaced during the insurgency.

REUTERS SBC RK1630