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Download PDF Army personnel recovered a huge cache of firearms, including 13 machine guns and rifles, six rocket launchers, 16 rocket shells and 10,750 rounds of ammunition, from the deep forest in Ali Kadam upazila of Bandarban district on Thursday.
On an army intelligence report, around 50 army personnel started an intensive search in the forest at Menchengpara near Myanmar border on Wednesday night and finally dug out the cache around 8:30pm on Thursday, said Captain Saif, general staff officer-3 in Bandarban.
“The team led by Lt Col Azimullah Bahar is still searching the area 31km off the Ali Kadam headquarters,” Capt Saif told The Daily Star last night over phone.
None was arrested in connection with the arms haul.
The seized arms and ammunition include three AK47 assault rifles, two M16 assault rifles, two light machine guns (LMG), six sub-machine guns (SMG), one 40mm rocket launcher, 11 40mm shells, five US-made rocket launchers and five shells, 6,750 bullets, and 2,000 bullets of LMG and SMG each.
The army also recovered 21 magazines of various kinds of firearms and 20 link belts.
Capt Saif said they are investigating to find out the people who kept the arms and ammunition hidden. He suspected that foreign miscreants may be behind it.
Local sources said rebels from Myanmar wandering inside the Bangladesh territory could possess the arms and ammunition.
Earlier on March 4, a joint team of army and Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) seized five AK47 rifles, two M16 rifles, one M1-A1 heavy machine gun, one 21-A1 machine gun, one German-made G3 LMG, one G3 rifle, one 7.62 bore rifle, one heavy SBBL gun, two SBBL guns and one Russian-made sub-machine carbine from Naikkhongchhari upazila in Bandarban.
In the biggest haul in last three years, they also recovered 19 rocket shells, 12 grenades, 47 anti-personnel mines including 27 US-made Clamour mines, 31 explosives-charged rocket launchers, one 40mm rocket launcher, 19 SMG magazines, eight M16 rifle magazines, three G3 LMG magazines and 7,000 bullets.
On February 25, the security forces seized another huge cache of arms, explosives and military equipment, including global positioning system (GPS) and range finders, from the area.
The BDR arrested three Arakan rebels and seized a big cache of arms and ammunition, including LMGs, AK47 and M16 rifles, from the remote forest of Naikkhongchhari on January 3.
In December last year, the BDR seized four Russian-made AK47 rifles and .79mm German-made pistols from Naikkhongchhari.
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