Joint forces have recovered firearms, ammunition and explosives-making equipment, and detained three individuals during a raid at a coaching centre in Kadirganj area of Rajshahi city.
A team of the 40 East Bengal Regiment of Bangladesh Army conducted the raid for several hours at the institution named ‘Doctor English’ in the area on Saturday morning. Later, a team of the Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) joined the raid.
The joint forces have also picked up the director of the coaching centre, Muntasirul and two others, identified as Md Robin and Md Faisal, during the raid. They are yet to be handed over to police.
According to the sources, the owner of the coaching centre is Muntasirul Alam Anindya, the cousin of Awami League presidium member and former mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation AHM Khairuzzaman Liton, who is now absconding after the political changeover.
During the July mass uprising, Awami League terrorists attacked the student-public movement. Two people were killed in that attack. They alleged that Liton and his followers had stockpile huge number of weapons in Rajshahi Nagar Bhaban at that time.
Army sources said that the recovered items included two foreign air guns, a revolver, three box air guns pellet, six local-made weapons, a treasure gun, four walkie-talkies, a GPS device, a magnet, a binocular, ten SIM cards, passports and National Identity Cards, six monitors, three computers, three scanners and 35 bottles of foreign liquor. In addition, various explosive-making equipment was also recovered.
No official statement has been made by any officer of 40 East Bengal or the army on this matter yet.
However, RMP spokesperson Gaziul Islam told the media that they will be able to provide details once the weapons are handed over to the police.