RAB have unearthed a huge arms cache in the Satchharhi jungles of Habiganj’s Chunarughat Upazila from what was once perhaps the headquarters of the now-weakened All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF). The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has in the past used the ATTF’s Satchharhi base to stock up weapons that were finally smuggled into Northeast India for use by their fighters. The ATTF is now weakened and its chief Ranjit Debbarma was handed over to India by Bangladesh after being arrested in Jan 2013. Debbarma, who is standing trial in Tripura on countless charges of murder and abduction, is very close to ULFA military wing chief Paresh Barua who has been awarded a death sentence in the 2004 Chittagong arms cases. Barua, now absconding, is believed to be hiding somewhere around Tengchong in the Sino-Burmese border. The ULFA and ATTF would smuggle huge quantity of Chinese-made weapons through south-east Asia by sea, land them around Cox’s Bazar or Chittagong and take them to rebel bases like Satchharhi, from where they would be smuggled into India’s troubled northeast. The recovery at Satchharhi on Tuesday afternoon is perhaps the single biggest case of arms seizures since the 2004 Chittagong arms case. RAB’s Additional Director General (operations) Col Ziaul Ahsan and Legal-Media director Wing Commander Habibur Rahman have both confirmed the seizures. They said at least 200 rocket launchers were among the huge consignment of weapons that were seized from five bunkers at Satchharhi during a special operation undertaken by RAB. Ahsan said the 200-odd rocket launchers were found in one huge bunker alone. More weapons were found from other bunkers located in the forest. Anti-tank explosives, mortar shells, chargers for rocket-launchers and other weapons have been recovered from the bunkers, said RAB. The elite police unit have been on a special operation in the Satchharhi jungles for the last two days and at the time of writing this report, the operations were still continuing. The ATTF used to keep those they used to abduct for ransom in Satchharhi. Tripura’s leading tea planter Yugabrata Chakrabarti died of renal failure in Satchharhi’s ATTF base when he ran out of medicines following his abduction. The ATTF asked for 1 million Indian rupees even for returning his dead body to his family. Indian military intelligence organised some renegade ATTF fighters in 2002 and got them to organise a huge attack on the ATTF Satchharhi base. Several ATTF fighters were killed in that attack. Following Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League coming to power and the crackdown on the Northeastern rebel groups that followed, the ATTF demobilised its Satchharhi base but there are reports they used it for moving weapons. —- bdnews24.com
