The terrorists with suspected links to Arakanese rebels in Myanmar melted into the deep forest under the cover of dark leaving behind the powerful devices, as they were daunted by the fire from a BDR team in Lemuchhari, 30 kilometres off Naikhangchhari upazila in Bandarban.

Yesterday's predawn seizure is the latest in a line of busts since July in Bandarban, one of the three districts in the restive Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), believed to be home to cross-border insurgents.

The list also features seven antipersonnel mines (with booby trap), 10 rocket launcher cell chargers, a grenade-firing bomb, 18 grenade-firing bomb chargers and equipment for 14 rocket launcher cells.

"It is suspected that the arms and ammunition were ... for subversive activities against the backdrop of gradually escalating situation in the CHT," says a home ministry press release.

No-one was injured in the hourlong gunbattle between the operatives and the BDR contingent led by Commander of 40 Rifle Battalion (Naikhangchhari) Lieutenant Colonel Hasinur Rahman.

Sources said middlemen carry arms from across the border on bushy hill routes of Naikhangchhari, Alikadam and Thanchi to Bandarban town. The arms are then handed over to local traders for sale, they said.

"The government is pursuing an active campaign to contain all terrorist outfits dealing with arms and drugs," the press release said.

In another raid, the BDR detained six terrorists and seized a haul of arms and ammunition from a slum at Chunarughat in Sylhet early yesterday.

A .303 rifle with 9 bullets, a .9mm pistol and 11 bullets were seized from the arrestees, the ministry press release added.

UNB reports: The arrestees are Kokek Tripura, 22, Philips Deba-barma, 24, Manjak Bebabarma, 20, Bukhuk Debabarma, 24, Satish Debabarma, 25, and Shoilen Debabarma, 25, from the Indian state of Tripura.

They are said to be members of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT).

BANDARBAN BUSTS CHRONICLED

Army seized an M-16 rifle, an AK-47 rifle, 124 bullets and a foreign-made wireless set in Bandarban in the first week of July.

Security forces seized an M-79 rocket launcher, two M-56 grenade launchers, 39 antitank grenades, an M-16 assault rifle, a single-barrel gun and a pistol on August 25.

The forces seized two firearms and 37 bullets after a gunfight with a gang of operatives deep in the hill forests in the district on August 26.

The BDR seized two AK-47 rifles, 1,500 bullets, a Chinese rifle and a walkie-talkie from the border area of Naikhangchhari on November 6.