The Daily Star, Vol. 5 Num 187
Thu. December 02, 2004
Our Correspondent, Bandarban
Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition
including AK47 rifles and light machine-guns at Naikkhongchhari upazila
in Bandarban district on Tuesday night into a week of another haul from
the same area.
The seized items include eight AK47 rifles and 48 magazines, eight light
machine-guns (LMG) and six magazines, and around 4,000 bullets.
On information, BDR raided Jaruliachhari hills and found the cache after
excavating the earth in two camps abandoned by criminals, said Lt Col
Hasinur Rahman, the zone commander of BDR's 40th battalion who led the
operations.
The camps are within seven kilometres off the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
BDR recovered another cache of seven AK47 rifles with 1,275 bullets, two
M16 rifles with 90 bullets, one point 22-bore rifle, two 12-bore
shotguns, two automatic rifles, 146 bullets of air rifle, 160 bullets of
pistol and one rocket launcher from Tekchhari on November 23.
In three raids on October 16, 21, and 22, three AK 47 rifles, 169 heavy
machine-gun shells, 2,945 bullets of M16 rifle, 99 bullets of sub
machine-gun and 47 bullets of AK47 rifle, 37 high frequency wirelesses
sets and nine binoculars were recovered.
On December 30 last year, 32 anti-tank mines, seven anti-personal mines,
six 40mm rocket launchers, 10 charge rocket launcher cells, one GF bomb,
18 charge GF bombs and 14 ingredients of rocket launchers were recovered
from the Lembuchhari Para, a few kilometres from the Bangladesh-Myanmar
border.