The Rapid Action Battalion has unearthed another large weapons cache at Sylhet’s Satchharhi reserve forest.Many Light Machine Guns (LMG), Sub Machine Guns (SMG) and Self Loading Rifles (SLR) and a large amount of ammunition were found, RAB Additional Director General Col Ziaul Ahsan said on Tuesday morning. RAB-9 was continuing operations in the Satchharhi forest in Habiganj’s Chunarughat Upazila, looking for more weapons, he said. Details of the haul will be made available at a press brief at Srimangal RAB camp at noon. RAB had found large cache of weapons stored in bunkers dug deep in hillocks inside the forest on Jun 3, barely 3 kms from the border with India’s Tripura state. Members of the elite force had searched the forest for several days to find various combat weapons including rocket launchers, four machineguns, a rifle, five machinegun barrels, 222 anti-tank weapons with 248 charges, 19 machinegun drum chains, 19 magazines, 12,987 bullets of various kinds and weapon lubricants. The recovery at Satchharhi in June was perhaps the single biggest case of arms seizure since the 2004 Chittagong arms case. RAB then said the hardware in the Satchharhi hills were similar to those from the 10-trucks haul and to an earlier arms recovery at Bogra in 2003. A Chittagong Court in Jan 30 sentenced 14 to death for attempting to smuggle the 10 trucks of weapon after it was proven that they were brought in for Assamese separatist group United Liberal Front of Asom (ULFA). –bdnews24.com
