Investigators suspect that the huge cache of arms and ammunitions recovered recently from Rupganj of Narayanganj were smuggled into the country by three outlawed outfits of India.
The three outlawed organizations are - the Unite Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), the Garo National Liberation Army (NLA) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). They said those three outfits have forged an operational alliance after they were banned by the Indian government.
Organisations like them usually use such sophisticated arms and ammunition, a high official of police told The Daily Observer.
According to security analysts, the recovery of such weapons twice in the span of just one year suggests that the gang or organisation responsible for their distribution is still active.
Needless to say, recoveries of such large weapon hauls are a bad omen for the security of Bangladesh. Faruque Hossain, additional superintendent of police in Narayanganj, told The Daily Observer that police recovered two rocket launchers, 62 Chinese sub machine guns, 42 hand grenades, 40 magazines, four pistols and huge cache of explosives from an underground den at Rupganj.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh on Monday "pushed back" Champion R Sangma, co-founder and chairman of the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA), to India.
Garo hills-based GNLA was declared a terror organisation in January by the Indian government for killing security personnel and civilians along with committing abductions and extortions, according to Indian newspapers.
The outfit, which had been outlawed by the Indian government, forged an operational alliance with the ULFA and the NDFB, which provided it access to sophisticated arms and ammunition, and enabled it to unleash a reign of terror in the three impoverished districts of Garo Hills. It also forged an alliance with the Bangladesh-based rebel group, A'chik Special Dragon Party.
The weapons and ammunition recovered from Rupganj Upazila in Naraynganj and Diabari in Uttara are reportedly similar in nature. As such, law enforcers suspect that both massive caches of arms are from the same source. Despite a year having passed since the Uttara weapons cache was recovered, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit Chief Monirul Islam said it was still not clear who was behind the weapons distribution operation and what is the country of origin for the arms.
However, the arms and ammunition from Diabari, including 263 magazines and 217 bullets as well as submachine guns, and those recovered from Rupgonj, seem to have been manufactured around the same time, the CTTC Chief added. Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque on Friday said the raid was conducted on the basis of information gleaned from Sharif Mia who was arrested after an SMG was found at his house.
It is still being investigated whether there were more arms in the hands of this syndicate, he added saying that it would soon be revealed who was gathering the arms and for what purpose. Islam Hossain, Officer-in-Charge of Rupganj Police Station, said such firearms were "usually used by Indian separatist outfit and militant group JMB."
Mahmudul Islam, Inspector of Detective Branch (DB) of police filed a case with the Rupganj Police Station early Sunday. The accused are Sharif, 35, Shahin alias Sanu, 30, Rasel, 23, Shanto, 18, Murad and Hridoy Miah. Among them, five are in police custody while Hridoy is on the run. Ismail Hossain of Rupganj Police Station told The Daily Observer: "They have been charged with stocking illegal arms, tarnishing nation's image and sedition."
