4 'gunmen' of Dhaka hotel held for carrying illegal firearms

Rapid Action Battalion yesterday claimed to have detained four “gunmen” of a Dhaka hotel in Baridhara on Sunday for carrying illegal firearms.

The detainees are Selim Reza, 37, Rabindra Nath Mandal, 42, Raju Mia, 36, and Shariful Islam, 30, said a Rab press release.

Rab found six “gunmen” in front of the hotel's reception and each of them was carrying a firearm.

Two of them were able to produce required documents in support of possessing the firearms.

Rab, however, did not disclose the hotel's name.

The law enforcers found the papers of the four “gunmen” to be “suspicious”. At one stage of quizzing, they “admitted” that they collected the firearms and papers from a “broker”, said the release.

Later, in primary interrogation, Rab found that the documents of the shotguns were fake.

The detainees confessed to collecting the illegal firearms and fake licences to make higher salaries.

They do not have any firearms training. They used fake seals of Rangpur District Administration and also forged signatures to obtain the fake documents, the release added.

Lt Col Sarwar Bin Quashem, commanding officer of Rab-1, said the detainees admitted that they bought the firearms at Tk 4 lakh each.

The Rab official said they suspect that the firearms might have been smuggled into the country from abroad.

He added that they were investigating the incident while legal actions against the detainees were underway.