Operation to recover arms, ammunition from Sherpur continues

The Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB) operation to recover arms in Sherpur has spilled over into the second day on Tuesday.

A huge cache of ammunition, anti-aircraft missiles, machine guns and other military hardware were dug out on Monday at the bordering district’s Nalitabarhi Upazila.

It is not clear which organisation had stored the ammunition, but Indian intelligence says the Assamese separatist group ULFA had a number of bases in the Sherpur area between 1994 and 2009.

Their base commander Masud Ranjajn Chaudhury was later arrested after Bangladesh security forces cracked down hard on Northeast Indian rebels following Sheikh Hasina's coming to power in 2009.

Like at Habiganj’s Satchharhi, where huge quantity of weapons and ammunition were seized in 2014 and which was the base of ULFA's fraternal group All Tripura Tiger Force, it is quite likely that the ULFA used Sherpur to stock up weapons and ammunition for taking them to Assam, a senior Indian intelligence official said.

Nalitabarhi police OC AKM Fasihur Rahman said that a case has been filed over the seized weapons and ammunition and that the operation resumed on Tuesday morning.

Earlier in 2010, a huge consignment of 13,000 rifles was recovered from Bakakura Gucchagram from Sherpur’s Jhenaigati Upazila.

At least 50,000 bullets, rockets, landmines and different varieties of weapons were found in the areas bordering India at Jhenaigati between 2007 and 2011.

More bullets and AK-47 rifles were recovered from a village at Nalitabarhi in 2012.

Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), after recovering the landmines in 2010, said they might have belonged to the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).