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More bunkers, more ammo

Rab recovers from Habiganj frontier forest

Star Report
The Rapid zXction Battalion yesterday found two more bunkers at Satchhari National Park in Chunarughat upazila of Habiganj
with a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including anti-tank rocket shells and a rocket launcher.
Thirty-eight rocket shells, four machine guns, 95 rocket chargers, 1,300 aminos of machine guns and over 13,000 bullets of different guns were recovered, said Habibur Rahman, director of the media and legal wing at the Rab headquarters.
No one was arrested this time either. Altogether nine bunkers have been discovered in the reserve forest in a joint drive carried out by members of the Rab headquarters and Rab-9 with the help of a dog squad and a bomb disposal unit.
The drive has been on fora couple of days, but on Tuesday, law enforcers first laid their hands on 184 rocket shells (40mm) and 153 chargers left in a bunker at a hillock of the forest. Six other bunkers were found empty on the day.
The bunkers looked like tunnels, Rab officials said.
The reserve forest, about three kilometres from the Indian state of Tripura, was used as a route by Indian separatist groups for smuggling arms, according to the investigations conducted after the 2003 arms haul in Bogra.
Sources in the law enforcement agencies said Indian separatist groups, including National Liberation Front of Tripura and All Tripura Tiger Force, used the bordering forest as a shelter and for training camps.
Rab personnel yesterday searched three hillocks and habitats of Tripura families inside the forest, Habibursaid.
"We could not ascertain who had kept die arms and aminos [in the bunkers) and the manufacturing country," he told reporters at a briefing at the spot.
The elite force suspects that there may be more storage of arms and ammunition inside the forest, the Rab official said.
Replying to a question, Habibur said the arms and aminos recovered tins time were apparently similar to those recovered in Chittagong in 2004 and Bogra in 2003.
"It will be clear during further investigation," he said, adding that Rab would continue the operation.
Amid the operation, male members of die 22 families, including 19 of die Tripura community, living inside the forest for generations went into hiding
in fear of harassment and arrest, forest officials said.
A Daily Starcorrespondent visited the place. Whoever was seen turned away when he approached them.
Pushpa Rani Deb Banna, a homemaker, did not initially talk to the correspondent but later said people in the forest had been completely unaware of the arms and ammunition inside die bunkers.
A Rab official, who is deputed from die army, said 40mm high-explosive anti-tank (heat) rocket shells are largely used by military forces across the world.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BBG Bangla service that the arms and ammos recovered from the forest were enough to destabilise a country and for militancy and separatist movements.
"We are looking into it. We will be able to say how these [arms and ammos] came here and what they were intended for," he said.
The Indian newspaper Anandabazar yesterday reported that the huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered in the forest belonged to the United Liberation Front of Asom leader Paresh Barua.
The Bangladesh government recovered those on receiving information gleaned by Indian intelligence agencies from Ranjit Dev Banna, a leader of the sepa ra ti s t grou p A11 Tri p u ra Tige r Force.
The state mi nister for home, however, dismissed theclaim.
"The arms haul was based on the intelligence of our local agencies," he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Rab Director General Mukhlesur Rahman visited the spotyesterday. He told reporters that two cases under the arms and explosives acts were filed last night with Chunarughat Police Station.
"You will get answers to all the questions after an investigation," he added.
Chunarughat police said they