Rab finds big arms cache

Rapid Action Battalion members seize huge arms, ammunition and arms making materials from Purbo Fakir Jumpara village in Moheshkhali upazila of Chittagong district and arrest three people in this connection yesterday.Photo: STAR

A Rapid Action Battalion team in separate drives seized 18 firearms, 108 rounds of cartridge and huge amounts of arms-making equipment and caught three persons yesterday.
Rab said the arrestees -- Toju Mian, 50, Nasir Uddin, 37, and Abu Bakkar Siddique, 21, all hailed from East Fakir Jumpara village of Moheshkhali, Cox's Bazar -- used to make and repair arms in an “inaccessible zone” of the village.
After a tip-off from intelligence agencies, a team of Rab-7 led by Maj Abdus Samad conducted a drive into the East Fakir Jumpara village in the small hours of yesterday.
Toju, Nasir and Bakkar were caught while fleeing.
The Rab men found 14 firearms and a large cache of ammunition and arms-making equipment from a shanty of the village.
“We have seized one 303 rifle, one foreign pistol, one foreign revolver, seven light guns, two homemade single-barrel guns, one homemade double-barrel gun, one three-quarter rifle, 100 rounds of cartridges and a huge amount of arms-making equipment,” said Lt Col Sazzad Hossain, commanding officer of Rab-7.
An exchange of fire with an armed gang had erupted during the drive but nobody was hurt, Rab said.
No one from the gang has been held.
In interrogation, the arrestees admitted of making arms since long in a makeshift house of the village and conducting various “terrorist activities” in the area.
In another development, on information from intelligence agencies about some armed “terrorists” in VIP Naval Academy area, the Rab team conducted a raid and seized four homemade single-barrel guns and eight cartridges around 6:15am.
No arrest was made in this drive, Rab said.