We believe that the arrests and discovery of large quantity of weapons and ammunition reconfirm what we have stated before, that our territory, because of the porosity of our borders has become a safe transit route of dissident elements of neighbouring countries. And further more, because of the lack of oversight of the border areas, either because of paucity of border troops or because of the nature of the terrain, some of these areas have become a safe haven for these elements for hiding illegal arms and weapons. The worrisome aspect of the matter is the seizure of large amount of small arms ammunition. Small arms ammunition is most difficult to come by because while small calibre weapons can be replicated crudely and comparatively cheaply, the production of ammo cannot be possible without refined technology.

Although this cache is suspected to be for the use of Indian insurgent elements presumably in their own territory, the fact that such large quantity of arms were deposited in our territory is something that should be a cause for our concern. We feel that it is not very important as to who we think have acquired these weapons, and the possible circumstances of their use, that these can proliferate in our country through sale to the underground as well as other radical elements in exchange for cash, and could very well be used to destabilise the country, is what we should focus on.

Thus we must increase the vigil over of our borders, and the sensitive areas on our borders must also be reinforced by the BDR and its oversight increased so that the transit of illicit weapons, and cross border movement of dissidents, can be curbed and ultimately totally stopped, if possible.

This operation and also those that have led to the capture of large quantities of weapons and ammunition, we hope, would allay apprehensions of our neighbours that Bangladesh will not brook activities of hostile elements belonging to their countries.