Uttara arms recovery still an unsolved mystery

The mystery regarding the large haul of arms, ammunition and explosives recovered in Diabari, Uttara of the capital city in June last year, remains unsolved. Even there is no visible effort to unravel the mystery either. The law enforcement agencies have failed to unearth the source of these arms or their destination.

Till date, no case has been filed regarding the arms haul. No sample has been sent to the department of explosives for tests. Footage from the closed circuit (CC) camera installed at the Buddhist temple nearby hasn’t been collected either.

The arms and explosives were recovered in three phases on 18, 19 and 25 June last year from the Diabari canal behind the Buddhist temple near the Mirpur-Ashulia embankment of Turag thana.

On 18 June a total of 95 7.62-bore pistols and 192 magazines, two 9mm pistols and 840 bullets, 10 Glock pistol magazines, 263 SMG magazines and 217 bullets, 10 bayonets, 180 rods used for cleaning firearms, and 104 IED boxes with springs attached were recovered. The next day, 19 June, 32 magazines and eight cleaning rods were retrieved.

On 25 June, in a lake about a kilometer from the previous site, the police recovered three bags containing five walkie-talkies, two large radios, two feeder cables, 22 covered plastic jars of various sizes, rods of various sizes, crystals, transistors, capacitors, registers, circuits, small electronic devices, explosive gel, 55 silver boxes attached with springs, 270 green boxes with springs, and some other electronic devices.

The recovered arms- ammunition were brand new, wrapped in scotch tape. The 7.62-bore pistols are basically used by the various government forces. Investigating officers said arms important of the government forces have the place of manufacture engraved on them. These pistols did not.

Additional deputy commissioner (ADC) of the counter terrorism unit Sanwar Hossain told Prothom Alo that the arms seem brand new and so there was no need for tests. He said that the explosives were a sort of dynamite normally used in India for blasting mines. The labels on the packets indicated the nature of the explosives. 

The arms were discovered in the first days on the very day after the police’s week-long nationwide combing operation and 12 days after the carnage at Holey Artisan in Gulshan.

On that day, 18 June, deputy commissioner of Uttara police Bidhan Tripura told journalists that the miscreants had dumped their arms and ammunition in fear of the combing operation. He said international and local quarters were involved. Later on 20 June at a press conference Dhaka metropolitan police Asaduzzaman Miah indicated that BNP and Jamaat were connected to the arms cache.

Now, seven months on, the investigating officer says they have not been able to ascertain anyone’s involvement in the matter.

The police filed a general diary (GD) with the Turag police station regarding the recovered arms and ammunition. DMP’s counter terrorism unit was given the responsibility to investigate the incident.

As to why no case has been filed in this connection, ADC Sanwar Hossain said that a GD is filed when the arms are not in anyone’s possession. If anyone’s involvement is found in the matter, then a case will be filed.

Buddhist monk of the nearby monastery Mudita Pal told Prothom Alo that they have six CC cameras, two facing towards the road. After recovering the arms from the Diabari canal, the police went to the monastery for breakfast, but didn’t ask for CC camera footage. Now that footage will no longer be available as it does not last more than a month.

Constable Shahidul Islam of Dakkhinkhan police station was instrumental in recovering the cache of arms. He told Prothom Alo he had gone out with his wife and children on 18 June afternoon and when returning by motorbike he noticed a black vehicle near the canal. Three boys stood nearby looking this way and that. There were two more on the banks of the canal. One of them was bending forward, carrying a bag.

Shahidul suspected someone may have been disposing of a body and rushed away from there and informed the Turag police OC of the matter over phone. When the police went to the spot, the vehicle had gone but they found the bags.

Six days later another three bags were found in a lake a kilometer away. Supervisor Yasin Ali of a fish farm there told Prothom Alo that on 12:30 in the night of 24 June he had been sitting in a boat on the lake and saw a vehicle come along.

He shone a flashlight at the car when it had parked. Two persons hurriedly climbed back into the vehicle and drove off. The vehicle was an SUV.

Security analyst and a retired brigadier general of Bangladesh Army M Sakhawat Hossain told Prothom Alo that he found the matter mysterious. He said, “Perhaps some law enforcement agency recovered the arms beforehand. Perhaps they, or any source of theirs, had disposed of these arms here to ‘recover’ them at a later date. And if any smugglers had left them there, the fact remains that influential persons are invariably involved with the smugglers. The police officers perhaps are aware of this and so are not investigating.”

*The article originally published in Prothom Alo print edition is rewritten in English by Ayesha Kabir