ULFA not alone

The United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was not the only rebel group from India's northeast that was involved with the plan to bring in a huge consignment of weapons through Chittagong in April 2004, according to an Indian intelligence source.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN)'s Issac-Muivah faction was also part of the smuggling bid, a top official of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) told bdnews24.com.

The NSCN's top gunrunner Anthony Nikkhang Shimray, who is now in NIA's custody, had actually struck the deal with the Chinese Norinco ordnance company through Thai intermediaries. He was arrested in Kathmandu with the help of Nepal police and brought to India to stand trial on arms smuggling charges in 2010.

Shimray was in the Hotel Golden Inn in Chittagong with Paresh Barua from late March 2004 to oversee the massive arms shipment, which was seized by Chittagong police. Shimray, based in Manila and operating out of Bangkok and Hong Kong, often visited Chittagong.

He slipped out of Chittagong quietly with Barua after the botched arms shipment in 2004.

"Paresh Barua tied up the Bangladesh end because he had better connections in the country compared to the Naga rebels. But it is the Nagas who have better connections in south-east Asia and China," the NIA official said.

Indian intelligence says that the NSCN and the ULFA had jointly booked the entire shipment. "They would have split the cargo after it had been carried away to a safe base, possibly somewhere in the Chittagong Hill Tracts," he said.

But he was equivocal about whether Shimray had provided any specific details about the Chittagong arms shipment than what was available to Bangladesh intelligence and prosecutors.

"We are committed to provide all the details to our counterparts in Bangladesh, because they are as serious as we are to get to the bottom of this whole plot," was all the NIA official would say.

"Not only do we know of the NSCN's role in the 2004 botched arms shipment, but we now have details of another NSCN plan to bring a smaller consignment of Chinese weapons through Cox's Bazar in 2010," the NIA official said.

He said Shimray had paid off the Chinese through a Thai arms dealer, named Willy, who has been arrested by Bangkok police on India's persistence. He's now being sought by Delhi to stand trial in the arms smuggling case with Shimray.

The consignment Shimray was trying to bring in consisted of 1100 assault rifles, 50 light machine guns, 25 mortars and as many rocket launchers with thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The NIA official said the consignment were to land south of Cox's Bazar in late 2010 but the whole plan fell through after Shimray's arrest in early 2010.

"This proves that after 2004 Chittagong arms haul and even after the post-2009 crackdown on northeast Indian rebels by Hasina government, the NSCN was trying to bring in weapons through Bangladesh territory," the NIA official said.

"Our Bangladeshi counterparts are as keen as we are to identify these rackets because northeast Indian rebels and Islamic radicals in Bangladesh could both be using them."

Shimray told NIA that if this consignment got through safely, more would follow.

"The idea was to test out the Bangladesh coast route again after the failed 2004 arms shipment," the NIA official said. "So they preferred to avoid a busy port like Chittagong and try the area south of Cox's Bazar."

This is where the northeast Indian rebels had picked up a huge consignment of weapons in April, 1995.

After the landings at Wyakaung beach, the weapons were carried by a column of Naga, Assamese and Manipuri rebels through southern part of northeastern Mizoram state.

Alerted by Arakanese rebels friendly to India, the Indian army tracked down the column and engaged in several encounters with the rebels, resulting in the killing of 38 rebels and arrest of 118, in what was described as "Operation Golden Bird".