Staff Reporter :
A large cache of sophisticated firearms and ammunition, including two rocket launchers, 62 Chinese sub-machine guns (SMGs), 42 hand grenades, 51 magazines, five pistols, 54 time-fused hand grenades, some boxes filled with bullets, explosives and two walkie-talkie, from a canal at Purbachal, near the capital on Friday.
They arrested three persons also in this connection, said our local Correspondent quoting Moinul Haque, Superintendent of Police, Narayanganj.
The arms and ammunition were tied with ropes to trees wrapped in plastic bags and kept in a water body, the SP said.
The drive continued till filing of the report at about 9:45pm on Friday, he said.
“Acting on a tip-off, police raided at Sector No. 5 of Purbachal in Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj district in the morning and recovered these arms and ammunition,” said Ismail Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of Rupganj Police Station.
Gleaning information from an alleged trader, who was arrested with a rifle last night, police conducted the raid “in a land” in the area and recovered these, the OC said.
Earlier, law enforcers raided a house owned by Mohammad Sharif, a resident of Daudpur Union on Wednesday. Sharif fled the scene leaving behind one SMG and some contraband Yaba tablets in the house.
Police detained Sharif in Fatullah the next day and extracted information from him about the arms cache hidden in Purbachal.
“The large cache of weapons recovered from Narayanganj was stored there with an intention of using them in large-scale sabotage in the future, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque.
He made the statement after visiting Narayanganj’s Rupganj on Friday morning from where a huge cache of arms and ammunition was being recovered.
The police Chief said: “A vested quarter had stored the weapons to create turmoil and thwart the development process of the country but our law enforcers have successfully foiled the conspiracy.”
DMP’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit Chief Monirul Islam told reporters, “The tactic of concealing arms and ammunition at Rupgonj is quite similar to that of Diabari, from where a large cache of arms and ammunition was also found last year.”
He suspects the same group is behind the concealment of weapons in the two locations.
He said that such firearms, including two launchers, 62 M16 assault rifles, SMGs (sub machine guns) and LMGs (light machine guns), were also “usually used by Indian separatist outfit Ulfa and militant group JMB.”
Detective Branch’s Sub-Inspector Mofizul Islam, said that they had searched the area for weapons based on information given by one Sharif Miah.
He said that police suspect there might be more firearms and ammunition in the area.
Meanwhile, Police Headquarters (PHQ) has formed a 12-member probe body, led by Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, Deputy Inspector General (Dhaka Range) of Police, to investigate the arms recovery incident at Purbachal in Rupganj, said Soheli Ferdous, AIG (PHQ-Media).
The committee was asked to submit the report within ten working days, the AIG said.
On June 17, at least 97 Chinese pistols, 1,060 bullets, 494 magazines and 10 bayonets were recovered from a canal in the city’s Diabari in the city’s Uttara area.
A large cache of sophisticated firearms and ammunition, including two rocket launchers, 62 Chinese sub-machine guns (SMGs), 42 hand grenades, 51 magazines, five pistols, 54 time-fused hand grenades, some boxes filled with bullets, explosives and two walkie-talkie, from a canal at Purbachal, near the capital on Friday.
They arrested three persons also in this connection, said our local Correspondent quoting Moinul Haque, Superintendent of Police, Narayanganj.
The arms and ammunition were tied with ropes to trees wrapped in plastic bags and kept in a water body, the SP said.
The drive continued till filing of the report at about 9:45pm on Friday, he said.
“Acting on a tip-off, police raided at Sector No. 5 of Purbachal in Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj district in the morning and recovered these arms and ammunition,” said Ismail Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of Rupganj Police Station.
Gleaning information from an alleged trader, who was arrested with a rifle last night, police conducted the raid “in a land” in the area and recovered these, the OC said.
Earlier, law enforcers raided a house owned by Mohammad Sharif, a resident of Daudpur Union on Wednesday. Sharif fled the scene leaving behind one SMG and some contraband Yaba tablets in the house.
Police detained Sharif in Fatullah the next day and extracted information from him about the arms cache hidden in Purbachal.
“The large cache of weapons recovered from Narayanganj was stored there with an intention of using them in large-scale sabotage in the future, said Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque.
He made the statement after visiting Narayanganj’s Rupganj on Friday morning from where a huge cache of arms and ammunition was being recovered.
The police Chief said: “A vested quarter had stored the weapons to create turmoil and thwart the development process of the country but our law enforcers have successfully foiled the conspiracy.”
DMP’s Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit Chief Monirul Islam told reporters, “The tactic of concealing arms and ammunition at Rupgonj is quite similar to that of Diabari, from where a large cache of arms and ammunition was also found last year.”
He suspects the same group is behind the concealment of weapons in the two locations.
He said that such firearms, including two launchers, 62 M16 assault rifles, SMGs (sub machine guns) and LMGs (light machine guns), were also “usually used by Indian separatist outfit Ulfa and militant group JMB.”
Detective Branch’s Sub-Inspector Mofizul Islam, said that they had searched the area for weapons based on information given by one Sharif Miah.
He said that police suspect there might be more firearms and ammunition in the area.
Meanwhile, Police Headquarters (PHQ) has formed a 12-member probe body, led by Mohammad Shafiqul Islam, Deputy Inspector General (Dhaka Range) of Police, to investigate the arms recovery incident at Purbachal in Rupganj, said Soheli Ferdous, AIG (PHQ-Media).
The committee was asked to submit the report within ten working days, the AIG said.
On June 17, at least 97 Chinese pistols, 1,060 bullets, 494 magazines and 10 bayonets were recovered from a canal in the city’s Diabari in the city’s Uttara area.
