Huge arms hauled from Bandarban rebel den
Machinegun, AK47, M16 rifles, TNT in seized cache; 3 foreign militants held
Our Correspondent, Bandarban
Army and border guards yesterday arrested three foreign militants at a remote forest den and seized a huge cache of explosives, state-of-the-art firearms and ammunition in Naikkhongchhari Upazila here.Yesterday's haul includes 7kg TNT (trinitrotoluene used as explosives), a M1A1 machinegun and an AK47, one .303 and four M16 rifles. A long-range rocket shell, 3,500 bullets and a 500-yard coil of wire used in explosive devices were also in the cache. Though the authorities concerned did not disclose the identities of the arrestees, but a local source said all the three arrestees are Rakhains from Myanmar, while an army source said the busted rebel camp belonged to Rohingya Solidarity Organisation. On a tip-off, a joint contingent of Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Rifles launched a surprise raid on the den hidden on a hillside in remote Bhaginar Chhara area. The 500-strong raiding party comprising privates from Ali Kadam Army Cantonment and Naikkhongchhari BDR Zone led by the zonal commander, Lt Col Abdul Awal, stormed the camp and captured the Rohingya rebels, BDR sources said. In the last operation before yesterday's, the security forces on January 3 arrested three other Arakan Liberation Party cadres in the same area and recovered a British light machinegun, an AK47 and five M16 rifles, two .303 rifles, seven Pakistan-made guns, 32 magazines and 7,000 bullets. Over the last couple of years, military, paramilitary and law enforcement forces have recovered a mammoth amount of explosives, firearms and ammunition from the remote Naikkhongchhari forests. Since February 2004, seven USA-made M79 rifles, three M16 rifles and 12 sawed off barrels of M16 rifles, 451 bullets and eight locally made rifles have been recovered from Tombru and Eidgor areas of Naikkhongchhari. In a series of operations in June to August last year, a machinegun and a submachine carbine (SMC), 21 rifles including eight of .12 bore, 33 foreign pistols, TNT, 22,655 bullets and a large quantity of combat equipment were seized. In the first week of September last, a British heavy machinegun and an SMC, 20 AK47 rifles, 32 German pistols and some 30,000 bullets were captured at Lembuchhari in Naikkhongchhari. And in December last, the BDR seized several Russian AK47 rifles and.79mm German pistols in the same upazila.
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