In the first raid in Dipjol and his brother Shahadat Hossain's flats of their ancestral house at 148, Coat Bari in Mirpur on Monday night the joint forces seized six licensed firearms with 386 unauthorised bullets.

However, none of them was at home during the four-hour raid that started around 11:00pm.

The arrestee, Anwar Hossain Afzal, was arrested during an hour-long raid between 6:00pm to 7:00pm yesterday. Afzal was handed over to Mirpur police last night with 20 unauthorized bullets of 7.65 pistols, its two magazines, a shotgun and 50 shotgun bullets, police said.

Police said that the six firearms seized from Dipjol's house were in lawful possession, but there was no permission for 317 rifle bullets possessed by Dipjol and 69 pistol bullets kept by Shahadat. Another 188 bullets, which were possessed legally, were also seized.

The joint forces also conducted a raid at Parbata Cinema in Mirpur, owned by one of Dipjol's brothers, yesterday evening.

Comprising army and policemen from Mirpur, Pallabi, Kafrul and Shah Ali police stations, the team encircled the five-storey building at Court Bari in Mirpur before starting the raid Monday night.

They seized a double barrel gun, a shotgun, one .22 bore rifle and an air gun and 317 rifle bullets and 89 cartridges of .22 bore gun from the first floor flat of Dipjol. Dipjol is the licensee of those firearms. The law enforcers then seized another .22 bore rifle, a shotgun, 99 rounds .22 bore rifle bullet and 69 rounds .32 bore pistol bullet from the second floor flat of Shahadat in the same building.

The seized firearms do not fall in the categories specified by the interim government for submitting firearms to the police stations concerned by January 5, police said.

Also a Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) Ward Commissioner, Dipjol was a contender for BNP tickets in the upcoming parliamentary polls from Dhaka-11 constituency and campaigned for a long time. Failing to get BNP nomination, he was contesting the polls as an independent candidate.

Assistant Sub-Inspector Asaduzzaman of Shahali Police Station filed two separate cases against Dipjol and Shahadat accusing them of possessing bullets illegally.

PARBATA CINEMA RAID
A team of army encircled Parbata Cinema from around 3:30pm yesterday.

The army was seen allowing the moviegoers to come out of the cinema hall after searching their bodies at around 6:45pm. However, it could not be learnt whether the army found anything illegal from there.