NEW DELHI, April 7— The arms haul believed to be the country’s biggest so far has rattled the Government of Bangladesh so much so that it has reportedly put its airports on red alert restricting the movement of 29 persons including top leaders of ULFA, NDFB, ATTF and NLFT besides a few other militant outfits. While security agencies in the country continue to grope in the dark, reports of a confidential order by Bangladesh Government restricting movement of a few selected individual has aroused the curiosity of the intelligence agencies here. Sources revealed that the Look Out List delivered to Bangladesh’s Department of Immigration is believed to include ULFA’s Commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah Chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa, NDFB Chairman Ranjan Daimary besides top leaders of NLFT, ATTF among other North-east based militant outfits.
All of them are using Pakistani passports supplied by ISI of Pakistan. However, it could be a case of shutting the doors after the horse has bolted, as earlier reports had it that Paresh Baruah took the first available flight out of Dhaka to Bangkok when the consignment was seized on Thursday night. But sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs said they are yet to have a confirmation of the report. Incidentally, Paresh Baruah has an Interpol Red Corner Alert Notice against him for his involvement in the kidnapping and killing of social activist Sanjay Ghose. He has since been supplied with a new passport by Pakistan, sources disclosed. Sources quoting reports said that Bangladesh Government suspecting them to be behind the arms haul has restricted the movement of rebel leaders. The Bangladesh Government has also been monitoring their everyday movement and intercepting telephonic conversations.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Government is still trying to figure out the ultimate destination of the consignment seized in Chittagong. Military experts in the country after examining the haul has reportedly concluded barring a few Pakistan-trained Kashmiri militant outfits, none other in neighbouring India including those insurgents operating in North Eastern Region used such high velocity anti-tank rockets seized in Chittagong.
Another factor that drawn the attention of the security agencies in Bangladesh was the seizure of silencers. The rebel groups and extremist organisations do not usually use silencers. In the Chittagong arms cache, there was one silencer against each gun. Reports in media in the country speculated that barring a few groups none of known rebel groups have enough resources to fund such costly arms and ammunition. “Shanti Bahini though once fought against Bangladesh Army its backbone was broken and they have not much ability to buy these types of consignment,” one report said.
Interestingly, speculation was rife in media in Bangladesh that it was India, which first tipped off Bangladesh about the arms consignment heading towards Chittagong. The United States later followed it up forcing the Government of Bangladesh to order an operation that led to the seizure.