A huge cache of arms and ammunitions has been recovered from the bordering Satchhari forest of Chunarughat upazila in Habiganj yesterday.
The cash included 184 pieces of 40m rocket shells, 153 rocket launcher charges and other warheads.
RAB recovered the anti-tank ammunitions and charges from a bunker inside the remote forest in a daylong raid.
The elite crime busters have also identified six more similar bunkers in the area, said RAB media wing Director Habibur Rahman.
“The bunkers are located 10-15 feet under the Satchhari forest ground. We will continue the drive for a few more days to recover more arms and ammunitions from the forest and the adjoining areas,” the RAB official said.
A dog squad and a bomb disposal team of RAB jointly conducted the operation. The stash was left unattended inside the bunker.
The RAB official said another drive was also being conducted in different parts of the area to nab those who kept the firearms. However, they are yet to officially disclose who had left those there.
Requesting anonymity, a RAB official from the force’s headquarters told the Dhaka Tribune last night that a big part of the Satchhari forest stretched across the Bangladesh-India border area. Indian state Tripura is situated on the other side.
“We suspect that the arms belong to one of the separatist groups from Tripura. They crossed the border and used the reserved forest to hide the huge ammo,” he said.
However, RAB did not inform the local police about the drive and the recovery, Amullo Kumar Chowdhury, OC of the Chunarughat police station, confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune.
Col Ziaul Ahsan, additional director general of RAB, and Habibur Rahman, director of the media wing, joined the first day’s drive yesterday.
“We think more arms and ammunitions are hidden under the bankers. We will dig them out... We believe half of them are still to be recovered,” Col Ziaul Ahsan said.
Habibur said the hills under which the bunkers were located, were dwelled by several families. However, after going there, the RAB members found only the female members and the children.
According to our Habiganj correspondent, once upon a time the Satchhari forest was known as a den of the All Tripura Tiger Forces (ATTF). However, the rebel group does not have much activity in the area at present.
On June 27, 2003, law enforcers recovered a stash of bullets from a truck in the northern district of Bogra which was believed to be trafficked by Asish Burma, nephew of Jogesh Burman, an ex-headman of the Satchhari Tripura Palli. Asish has been absconding since then.
At that time, several Indian newspapers reported that the ATTF den was also being used by the United Liberation Front of Asam (Ulfa) for storing trafficked arms.
ATTF chief Ranjit Debbarma, who had close ties with Ulfa chief Paresh Barua, is now in Tripura jail.
Paresh was given death sentence in the Chittagong 10-trucks arms haul case and is believed to have taken refuge in China now.
Detectives believe that Ulfa and ATTF used to bring arms and ammo through Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar and hide those in their Satchhari den.
