Staff Reporter :Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a drive recovered a huge cache of firearms and ammunition, including anti-aircraft missiles, from Kalapani area at Bhurunga border under Nalitabari upazila of Sherpur district early Monday.The arms and ammunition were unearthed after digging the Chanbera hilltop in the area. Over 60 elite forces from RAB-5 and RAB-12 took part in the drive. It is apprehended that the stocks were piled up by Ulfa militant outfits from across the border. “Based on intelligence report, the RAB members detected the exact location of the arms and ammunition with a metal detector and recovered 43,000 bullets, two sniper rifles, 2,000 anti-aircraft missiles and some military equipment from four separate spots on the hilltop of Kalapani area of the district,” RAB’s legal and media wing Director Mufti Mahmud Khan told The New Nation on Monday afternoon.He added the recovered ammunition included 23,000 rounds of Machinegun bullets, 17000 rounds of Short Machinegun bullets and 2000 rounds of anti-aircraft bullets.Besides, 37 magazines, six walky-talkies, three compasses, eight clean shutters and satellite cell phones were also recovered from the spot.The anti-aircraft ammunition is used for destroying air targets more effectively, he said. “The drive began early Monday and continued till afternoon,” Mahmud said. “We are investigating whether the recovered firearms and ammunition had been kept under the ground for launching terror attack by militant outfit,” he said. Mahmud said RAB has so far recovered a total of 1.33 lakh ammunition, 13,000 firearms, 18,000 explosives, including grenades, and thousands of crackers since its inception on March 26, 2004. When contacted, Superintendent of Police of Sherpur Mehedul Karim said a team of RAB-5 detained four suspected people from Rajshahi on Sunday.According to their information, a special squad of RAB conducted raid there and recovered the arms and ammunition.However, RAB’s media wing director, Mufti Mahmud Khan said the raid has not been conducted based on information extracted from the arrested persons. “None has been arrested in this connection,” he said.Earlier in 2010, in a similar haul 13,000 rifles were recovered from Bakakura Gucchagram from Sherpur’s Jhenaigati Upazila. At least 50,000 bullets, rockets, landmines and different varieties of weapons were found in the areas bordering India at Jhenaigati between 2007 and 2011. More bullets and AK-47 rifles were recovered from a village at Nalitabarhi in 2012. UNB adds; tipped off, a team of RAB-5, led by its commanding officer Lt Col Mahbub Alam conducted the drive in Chengbandha area along Bhurunga border and dug out the buried arms and ammunition, said RAB legal aid and media wing director Mufti Mahmud Khan.The RAB members launched the drive at 3 am and it was on till filing of the report around 17.30pm, he said.Besides, Director of RAB intelligence wing Squadron Leader Abul Kalam Azad said the drive was conducted over a 2-km area. All the arms and ammunition were kept in some plastic drums wrapped with polythene, he said.However, it was not clear yet who had stockpiled the arms there, but locals suspected that the seized arms and ammo belong to United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), an Indian separatist group.Earlier in 2004, the elite force in a drive recovered 29,000 bullets from Jhenigati upazila, while police arrested six Ulfa leaders along with seven firearms from the Bhurunga border area in 2003.
