After a series of brainstorming sessions, the government finally decided to resolve the issue by transferring six SPs from Rab in Wednesday's major reshuffle of police administration, a top official of the home ministry said yesterday seeking anonymity.

The official said the SPs were highly aggrieved when the government designated them as deputy directors (DDs) of Rab, placing them under wing commanders and lieutenant colonels of the armed forces as directors or battalion commanders of Rab. The makeup of the elite anti-crime force made army officials of Major rank equal to SPs as DDs.

In the Rab hierarchy, director general (DG) is the top man, with additional DG, director, DD, assistant director (AD) and deputy assistant director following him. An additional inspector general of police (IGP) will be the DG of Rab, additional deputy IGP will be additional DG, officers of armed forces of lieutenant colonel, major and captains ranks will be battalion commanders or directors, DDs and ADs.

A police official said SPs held the commanding posts in the police force, but in Rab they were downgraded to the second-in-command position, with army officers in charge as battalion commanders. He said many of them felt that placing an SP under an army official of equivalent rank would undermine the dignity of the police rank.

"The home ministry has dropped the SPs from Rab to maintain cohesiveness and integrity in inter-departmental ranking," said another official of the ministry. He said the government took the decision on its failure to reach an amicable solution.

The government in a gazette notification on February 17 appointed six SP-rank police officials to Rab. They are SM Ruhul Amin, ex-SP of Rajbari, Rafiqul Islam, former SP of Satkhira, Helal Uddin Badri, ex-SP of Narayanganj, Mazharul Hoque, former deputy commissioner (DC) of Rapid Action Team (Rat), Delwar Hossain Mian, ex-SP of Special Branch, and Moinul Islam, former SP of Meherpur.

In Wednesday's reshuffle, Ruhul was transferred to Jhalkathi as SP, Rafiqul to the Police Headquarters as AIGP, Helal to the Special Branch (SB) in Dhaka as special SP, Mazharul to Dhaka Metropolitan Police as deputy police commissioner, Delwar to the SB in Dhaka as special SP and Moinul to Rajbari as SP.

The Jatiya Sangsad passed the Armed Police Battalions (Amendment) Act 2003 in July last to pave way for formation of Rab. The over 5,000-men force draws its members from the armed forces, police and ansars.

Four Rab battalions will initially operate in Dhaka and one each in Chittagong, Rajshahi and Khulna.

Tk 402 crore is being spent on launching the elite force and the government will allocate Tk 80 crore a year to run it.