Our Chittagong Staff Correspondent reports: Rab in two separate drives recovered seven fire arms and huge quantity of ammunition from Boalkhali and Patiya upazilas in the district.

Two criminals were also arrested and fire arms manufacturing materials recovered from one of them.

Acting on a tip-off, a 15-member Rab team here raided the Dhalghat area in Karaldanga union under Boalkhali thana.

They arrested criminal named Sagor Chakraborty, 20, with a single-barrel (SBBL) gun, one LG and equipment including two powerful springs used in modern fire arms from his two-storied house.

The criminal was arrested while loading a gun to shoot at the Rab members.

Later, the Rab team recovered three fire arms, two LGs and one SBBL gun with seven cartridges from the criminal's cowshed.

Sagor, an accused in several criminal cases, claimed that the recovered five fire arms belonged to local Union Parishad (UP) chairman of Karaldanga, Bacha Mia. He confessed that he had been an active member of the local group of criminals allegedly controlled by chairman Bacha Mia.

Sagor was handed over to Boalkhali Thana.

In another drive, another team of Rab here in a pre-dawn raid recovered two fire arms, one SBBL gun, one modern air-gun with three bullets and 147 air-gun bullets, from the house of a wanted criminal, Bimol Dey, 50, at Kelishahar in Patiya.

But Bimal managed to flee.

However, Rab nabbed another criminal, Bimol Sarder, 36.

He was charged with drug peddling and helping Bimol Dey in trading locally-manufactured guns.

The arrested person was handed over to Patiya police.

Our Khulna Staff Correspondent reports: Rab on the day recovered modern seven shooter short guns made in USA, a sub-machine carbine made in India and a magazine of sub-machine carbine (SMC) from a bush beside Road No 22 in Nirala residential area in Khulna Thana.

Getting prior information of operation a group of criminals managed to escape leaving the arms, according to a Rab press release.