Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have recovered 18 anti-tank rocket shells after conducting an operation at Satchari National Park in Chunarughat upazila in Habiganj.
This was the seventh time that an arms recovery raid had been conducted at the park.
“A special team of the BGB entered the deep forest of Satchari National Park in Chunarughat at 4pm on Tuesday and recovered 18 rocket shells, which were wrapped in polythene and buried underground,” said 55 BGB Captain Lt Col SNM Samiunnabi Chowdhury, at a press conference on Wednesday.
He continued: “The BGB has been keeping close watch on Chimtibil and Satchari areas for the past few days after receiving a tip-off that terrorists were stockpiling arms and ammunition deep inside the forest. Tuesday’s raid was a part of that process.”
Whether the terrorists were locals or foreigners could be confirmed after receiving information from intelligence agencies, he said, before adding that no arrests had been made during the raid.
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“Despite several attempts, the place of origin and the date of manufacture and expiration of the ammunition could not be ascertained,” the BGB official mentioned.
Raids, recoveries
Since 2014, the law enforcement agencies have recovered several military-grade weapons, including rocket launchers and artillery shells, and other arms and ammunition from the national park, a popular tourist site, after conducting multiple raids.
From June 1 to September 17, 2014, the Rapid Action Battalion recovered 334 artillery shells, 298 rocket chargers, a rocket launcher, 16 machine guns, a beta gun, six SLRs, an auto rifle and five empty machine gun barrels during a three-phase operation.
A huge cache of ammunition was also recovered from the forest at the time.
On October 17, 2014, three machine guns, four barrels, eight magazines, eight belts with carrying capacity of 250 bullets and a high-power radio were recovered from the deep forest of the park.
A total of 9,454 rounds of bullets, including 8,360 rounds for SMG and LMG, 152 rounds for 303 rifles, 518 rounds for small arms and 425 rounds for machine guns were recovered on October 18 at noon.
On February 2, 2016, 10 high explosive 40mm anti-tank rockets were recovered during an operation at the national park.
On November 24, 2019, several explosives, including shells of 13 rocket launchers, were recovered from Satchari.
