A continuing RAB operation yielded another huge cache of arms in the Satchharhi jungles of Habiganj near the Indian border Wednesday with over 12,000 bullets found on the second day’s drive. On Tuesday, the force recovered around 200 high explosive anti-tank weapons with as many charges. RAB personnel on Wednesday searched the hillocks in the reserve forest about three km from the Indian border in Tripura. RAB spokesperson Wing Commander ATM Habibur Rahman told the media they had found seven bunkers in the hillocks. So far, a rocket launcher, a machinegun, five machinegun barrels, 222 anti-tank weapons with 248 charges and 12,987 bullets of various kinds had been recovered, he said. Habibur said the weapons were similar to the truck-full of bullets recovered in Bogra, in 2003, and the Chittagong arms haul in 2004. RAB’s Additional Director General (operations) Col Ziaul Ahsan said the residents of the hill had fled but were under RAB surveillance. The place where the weapons were found is thought to be part of what was once perhaps the headquarters of the now-weakened All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF). The ATTF is currently a shadow of its former self and its chief, Ranjit Debbarma, is now standing trial in his home state Tripura on several charges of murder and abduction. Debbarma, who is said to have been handed over to India by Bangladesh after being arrested in Jan 2013, is close to ULFA military wing chief Paresh Barua. Barua, who was awarded the death sentence in the 2004 Chittagong arms cases, is believed to be hiding somewhere around Tengchong on the Sino-Burmese border. The ULFA and ATTF would smuggle a huge quantity of Chinese-made weapons through Southeast Asia by sea, land them around Cox’s Bazar or Chittagong and take them to rebel bases like Satchharhi, from where they would be smuggled into India’s troubled northeast. —bdnews24.com
