So far they have seized passports of 185 former ministers and lawmakers, politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen for alleged corruption and attempts to create anarchy. Seventy of them have already been detained. All the 50 graft suspects listed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) are also among those [185].

The law enforcement agencies are assisting the members of the armed forces in making the seizures, added the sources.

Several names of the 200 people mentioned above might figure in the ACC's new list that is likely to come out this month, the sources said.

Banks have been asked to be on alert so that those [of the listed ones] who have deposited their passports and documents in the bank safes cannot withdraw them.

According to sources, the army-led crack forces have a list of over 400 people alleged to have made a huge fortune through corruption in the last 12 years.

Their 'misdeeds' include siphoning off public money, manipulating tenders, grabbing land, misappropriating funds from different government projects, and creating political chaos.

The forces first seized passports on February 4, the day they launched a crackdown on 'corrupt' political big names from both the BNP and Awami League (AL), businessmen and bureaucrats.

As of February 28, they have seized passports of 74 politicians, 86 businessmen and 25 incumbent and former bureaucrats from their houses, offices and the places they would frequent, said sources.

Passports of the wife, sons and daughters of a few have also been seized as part of the pressure tactics.

"They may also detain close relatives to force them to surrender," said a source.

Most of the serving and ex-bureaucrats whose passports have been seized are from customs, the National Board of Revenue, Roads and Highways and Power Development Board. A number of secretaries are among those.

Some of the influential people who have dual nationality are learnt to have siphoned off a huge amount of money from Bangladesh, said sources.

"The joint forces fear that it might not be possible to bring them back to Bangladesh once they have managed to flee the country," a top official of a law enforcement agency told The Daily Star.

One of the 50 graft suspects, a large chunk of whose wealth came from illegal businesses, has already left the country.

Another top businessman has gone abroad incognito, using a separate passport, said sources.

The immigration police at Zia International Airport yesterday said they have yet to receive a complete list of such individuals.

"We bar people from going abroad on instructions from the government agencies. Usually, we get an alert message when these people come to the airport or a short while before they move in that direction," officer-in-charge of the immigration police told The Daily Star.