The cache includes one British-made LMG, one AK47 and five M16 rifles, two .303 rifles, seven Pakistan-made guns, 32 magazines and 7,000 bullets, said an official handout.

All the three members of the Arakan Liberation Party-- Ka Aong, 40, Aong Theong, 25, and Tcha Thoang Ching, 25 --hailing from Ghayagong village of Mongdu thana under Akiyab district of Myanmar, the handout said.

This is the first time the law enforcers have disclosed the identity of any rebel although they have so far arrested around 30 foreign nationals from the Bangladesh-Myanmar border areas.

Acting on a tip-off, a joint team of army and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) raided the terrorist den on a hill of Bakkhali area, some 12km away from Bandarban sadar, and made the recovery.

The troops comprising around 500 jawans from Ali Kadam Cantonment and Naikkhong-chhari BDR zone, led by zone Commander Lt Col Abdul Awal and Major Mobassar of the Ali Kadam Cantonment, in a surprise move stormed the den and captured the rebels, said BDR sources.

Law enforcement agencies have recovered huge amount of explosives, firearms and ammunition from the remote forests of Naikkhongchhari in the last two years.

Since February 2004, seven US-made M79 rifles, three M16 rifles, 451 bullets and 12 excess barrels of M16 rifles, and 8 local-made rifles have been recovered from Tombru and Eidgor areas of Naikkhong-chhari.

In December last year, the BDR seized four Russian-made AK47 rifles and .79mm German-made pistols.

Earlier, 33 foreign pistols, 13 rifles, eight .12 bore rifles, one machine gun, one sub machine carbine (SMC), TNT explosives, 22,655 bullets and huge quantity of military equipment were seized during several operations in June-August last year.

In the first week of September, 20 AK47 rifles and around 30,000 bullets of several firearms, 32 German-made pistols, one British-made heavy machine gun and one SMC were seized from Lembu-chhari area of Naikkhongchhari.