The incident occurred when PBCP (M-L) cadres attacked the Joint Forces conducing a search for illegal arms on the basis of information received from Tapu, arrested earlier. The outlaws fired more than 100 rounds at the Joint Forces, who responded with 32 shots, Superintendent of Police (SP) Habibur Rahman said.

Tapu was arrested by Khulna district police from Ibrahimpur in Mirpur of Dhaka on Thursday and brought to Khulna.

Sources said the dreaded outlaw was hiding in the capital for the last two months with the backing of a BNP central leader and one of the six MPs from Khulna district.

The SP said Tapu was chargesheeted in 12 murder cases and accused of 19 other criminal charges. He was involved in five double murders, including the killing of two policemen, and in the murders of Rupsha upazila Awami League general secretary Sarder Harun-ar-Rashid and Naihati Union Parishad chairman Golam Faruque. He was given life term in the Harun murder case.

Tapu was evading arrest since 1993 thanks to his links with leaders of successive ruling parties. He had created a reign of terror in Rupsha, Terokhada and Dighalia upazilas where he committed 12 murders for refusing to pay toll and also for opposing his criminal activities, police said.

He was in possession of huge arms and ammunition and led a gang of over 2,000, who included around 100 professional killers. The gang members move about as rickshawpullers, fish sellers, vegetable vendors and day labourers, police and intelligence sources said.

Tapu became chief of the PBCP (ML) in 2001. The other faction, PBCP (Janajuddha) is led by Abdur Rashid Malitha alias Tapan.