Huge ammunition haul in Sherpur

Rapid Action Battalion recovered an astounding 41,000 bullets at Burungya Kalapani Pahar of Sherpur's Nalitabari upazila yesterday.

They also recovered three rifles, three parts of a heavy machine gun, two parts of an anti-aircraft gun, 10-15 machine gun bullets, 10 long- and short-range walkie-talkies, a sniper's optical scope, and magazines stuffed in boxes inside plastic barrels.

The stash was buried underground in the barrels at a hill near the Indian border.

“Considering the location and all other circumstantial evidence, it appears that the seized cache of arms and ammunition were of an Indian insurgent group,” said security analyst Maj Gen (retd) MA Rashid.

Asked whether those could have been left behind by the Pakistan army during the Liberation War in 1971, Rashid said there was slim possibility of that.   

According to sources in different law enforcement agencies, the Garo Pahar area in Nalitabari, had become a safe haven for Indian group United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa).

With the latest seizure by Rab-5, led by Lt Col Mahbub Alam and Company Commander Mobasserul Islam yesterday, law enforcers have found around one lakh bullets, arms, and explosives in this region in the last one decade.

Police, BGB and Rab sources said a young man named Russell Sangma was arrested and 29,100 bullets were recovered under the ground of a house in Bakakura of Jhinaigat's Kangsha union on September 13, 2007.

After his arrest another 10,000 bullets were recovered in the Garo Pahar area that very September.

Sangma who claimed to be a member of a criminal organisation of India was sent to jail. He is serving his terms in a Sherpur prison. 

On December 18, 2010, police recovered 13,680 bullets of a Chinese rifle from an abandoned house in the same village.

A week later, the BGB recovered seven abandoned mines, one grenade, 97 bullets, detonators, Indian currency, walkie-talkies, and documents of Ulfa.

None was arrested then.

At least 2,053 bullets were recovered in the Garo Pahar area between May, 2011, and August, 2012.

Ulfa had been active in the area between 2000 and 2010 under the leadership of its military commander Masud Ranjan Chowdhury.

Rab on July 17, 2010, arrested him and his associate Pradip Marak.

On April 8, 2015, the duo were awarded life imprisonments and fined Tk 20,000.

They are currently serving their terms in a Kishoreganj prison.