Huge arms, ammo haul in Habiganj forest

Rab personnel display arms and ammo, recovered from Satchhari forest in Habiganj, during a press briefing at the headquarters of Crime Prevention Company (CPC-2) in Srimangal upazila of Moulvibazar Tuesday. Photo: Star

For the third time in three months, a huge cache of firearms and ammunition were recovered from the Satchhari forest in Habiganj this morning, Rapid Action Battalion claims.

Two light machine guns (LMG), one sub-machine gun (SMG), six self loading rifles (SLR), one automatic rifle, one sniper telescope-5 rifle and 2,400 bullets of bore 7.62mm were recovered from the forest in Chunarughat upazila bordering the Tripura state of neighboring India, said Mufti Mahmud Khan, director at Legal and Media Wing of Rab.

He was briefing the press at the headquarters of Crime Prevention Company (CPC-2) in Srimangal upazila of Moulvibazar at 12:30pm.

The firearms and ammunition were found in two containers hiding in two holes in the deep forest, the Rab official said.     

While talking to media, Khan said, “We found the arms and ammunition this morning. But our intelligence team was on alert since August 29.”

Replying to a question, the Rab official said they were yet to be confirmed who kept the firearms and bullets in the deep forest. “It will be revealed after examining intelligence information,” he added.

Recently, the Rab have made several arms busts from the Satchhari national reserve forest, what has reportedly been labeled as a smuggling route by Indian separatist groups by the law enforcement agencies.

On June 3, Rab recovered 184 rocket shells (40mm) and 153 chargers abandoned in one bunker at the hillock of the reserve forest, some 130km off the capital,

On June 9, Rab recovered 633 rounds of 7.62 mm bullets, 54 rounds of 12.54 mm bullets, 37-inch long barrel of a machinegun from the forest.

On June 27, 2003, a truckload of ammunition was recovered in Bogra.Investigators had said they found links of militant National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and separatists United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) into the incidents.

The BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) arrested two Indians with a modern Chinese rifle, a gun, a compass, a wireless set from them at the Satchhari Forest Range on July 1 in that year.

Investigations following the 2003 arms haul in Bogra revealed that the reserve forest, about 3km from the Indian state of Tripura, was used as a route by Indian separatist groups for smuggling arms.