NEW DELHI, April 5 — Even though the country’s biggest arms haul continues to shake the Government of Bangladesh, the North East connection is yet to be confirmed. Although the needle of suspicion is pointed towards the North-east rebel groups, particularly the ULFA, sources said that they are yet to receive any word from Bangladesh Government in this regard. Intelligence reports, however, indicated that the North East was the likely destination.
Reports speculated that ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah himself was supervising the operation that went sour forcing him to flee to Bangkok. Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) officials here are puzzled because the elusive chief of ULFA was known to be under protective custody of DGFI Bangladesh and India had reports of Baruah having used the route to smuggle in the weapons. It was in the Chittagong area that attempts were made on his life twice when he had reportedly gone to receive such consignments. The ULFA chief narrowly escaped on both occasions and was reported to be sheltered by DGFI sleuths.
According to reports in Bangladeshi media, the entire border belt of the Chittagong Hills Tract (CHT) are virtually unprotected. A huge stretch of around 370-km of international border with India has no border outposts. Lack of policing has led to emergence of powerful smuggling syndicate. These syndicates which enjoy support of a section of political leaders and business Mafia are closely linked to terrorists and insurgents of different varieties, some operating on international scale, media reports said.
The smugglers and insurgents of North-east use different points of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari, most of which are remote and difficult to negotiate besides maintaining a network that connect important entry and exit points Bangladesh, India and Myanmar borders, intelligence sources said. That the area had become a smuggler haven could be ascertained from the fact that arms haul are yearly affairs, with 2001 and 2002 being the sole exceptions.
The Government of Bangladesh, meanwhile, constituted a high-power inquiry committee headed by the home secretary to investigate the recovery of huge illegal arms and ammunition and to unravel the mystery behind the arms shipment. Meanwhile, latest reports pouring in from the neighbouring country indicated that majority of weapons was America, Korea, Italy and Chinese made So huge was the consignment that it took 14 hours for Bangladeshi security agencies to count the huge consignment.
According to the list submitted before Court in Bangladesh, a total of 690 Korean-made 7.62m-bore and T56-one mm-bore sub-machineguns (SMGs) with 2,760 magazines were found in 69 boxes. Each box contained a total of 10 SMGs with four magazines for each gun. Besides, 32 more SMG magazines were found in another box. The, 7.62m-bore SMG is also popularly known as AK-47.
Another variety of 600 Korean-made SMGs (7.62mm bore and T56-2mm bore) was also stuffed in 60 boxes with a total of 2400 magazines. Each of the boxes contained 10 pieces of SMG. Among other firearms, 100 Italian-made Tommy-gun were found with 400 magazines in 10 boxes and 400 pieces of 9mm semi-automatic Sporting rifle with 800 magazines in 40 other boxes. Israeli soldiers use the 9mm semi-automatic Sporting Rifle, also known as Uzi-gun. This highly sophisticated weapon is used by sleuths protecting Z Plus category politicians including Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
A total of 150 pieces of Korea-made 40mm rocket-launchers T69 were seized from 30 boxes, five pieces in each. The number of total seized Korea-made hand-grenades T82-2 was 25,020, packed in 417 boxes. Each of the cases contained 60 pieces. A total of 2000 pieces of Korea-made launching grenade tubes were found in 40 boxes—50 in each box. Besides, a total of 150 Chinese-made Site for Rocket Launchers and 840 pieces of 40mm rockets were recovered. In 502 boxes were 739,680 bullets for 7.62mm SMGs, while 176 boxes had four lakh bullets for Chinese pistols. Apart from firearms and ammunition, one set of black-colored Japanese-made walkie-talkie of Alinco brand-name, one bag of ceilings for different types of firearms, two sacks of bandoleers for keeping bullets and one sack of back-cover of rocket-launchers were also recovered.