More arms, ammo recovered in Habiganj
A day into the recovery of a large cache of ammunition, the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) found more anti-tank rocket shells, machine guns, rocket launcher and large number of ammunition from two bunkers at Satchhari National Park in Chunarughat upazila of Habiganj this morning.
The elite force so far recovered total nine bunkers during the ongoing drive began yesterday.
The Rab men recovered a rocket launcher, eight rocket shells, four machine guns, five barrels of machine guns and 1, 300 ammunition of machine guns and 11,667 bullets of different guns, said Habibur Rahamn, director of Media and Legal Wing at Rab headquarters.
Personnel from Rab headquarters and Rab-9 are jointly conducting the drive with the help of a dog squad and a bomb disposal unit.
The Rab men yesterday recovered 184 rocket shells (40mm) and 153 chargers abandoned in a bunker at the hillock of the reserve forest.
They also spotted six more underground bunkers there, but found nothing in those so far.
Rab is yet to ascertain who stored the ammunition there. Nobody was arrested in this connection as of this morning.
The ammo that recovered yesterday were wrapped in polythene and there was nothing written about the manufacturing country on the shells, said Col Ziaul Ahsan, additional director general (operations) of Rab, who took part in the drive.
The drive, which remained suspended at 5:00pm on Tuesday, resumed this morning.
Sources in the law enforcement agencies said Indian separatist groups, including National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF), used the bordering forest area for shelter and as a training camp in the past.
On June 27, 2003, a truckload of ammunition was recovered in Bogra.
Investigators found links of NLFT and Ulfa (United Liberation Front of Asom) in that incident.
The reserve forest, about 3 kilometre from the Indian state of Tripura, was used as a route by Indian separatist groups for smuggling arms, according to the investigations revealed from following the 2003 arms haul in Bogra.
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