Foreigners with M16 held after 4hr fight

After a fierce gunfight with an armed gang, Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) seized one M16 rifle, one light machinegun (LMG) and huge ammunition from Alekkhong in Naikkhangchhari upazila early yesterday.

The border guards arrested three foreign criminals after the four-hour shootout. The arrestees --- Aung Thui Ching, 30, Kew Ching, 32, and Aung Zhai, 30 -- are suspected to be Myanmar citizens.

Acting on secret information, a BDR team led by Lt Col Abdul Awal, commanding officer (CO) of Naikkhangchhari zone, on Monday night surrounded a den of criminals in the deep forest of Alekkhong, 29 km off Naikkhangchhari.

Sensing the presence of the BDR team, the armed gang opened fire from sub-machineguns (SMG) on the security forces. The BDR jawans also replied with shots that led to a gun battle at about 2:00am, sources said.

After about four hours of fierce fighting, the criminals retreated. The BDR men, however, caught three criminals and seized one M16 rifle, one LMG, 400 bullets, a few combat uniforms and secret documents from their den.

Both sides exchanged more than 200 rounds of gunshots during the shootout.

The border guards have launched a massive arms recovery operation in the border areas of Naikkhangchhari following the tips of the arrestees.

BDR sources said this was for the third time in the last two months the criminals engaged in gunrunning in Naikkhangchhari border fired on the security forces. The BDR arrested five foreigners after the earlier gunfights.

The border guards this year arrested a total of 30 criminals, most of them are foreigners, from the Naikkhangchhari border areas, BDR sources said.

The BDR jawans recently seized five AK47 rifles, one SMG, 35 bullets, eight point 12-bore rifles, a huge amount of explosives, empty magazines, combat uniforms and secret documents from the remote frontier areas.

Sources said, that the security forces so far conducted four operations in Alekkhong area. On July 9, for the first time the BDR faced armed encounter from the criminals. About 250 rounds were traded during the gunfight.

On July 6, BDR seized TNT explosives, 199 bullets of AK47 rifles and 91 bullets of pistol from the same area. In another operation, they seized eight rifles.