Bangla
Times:
March 10,
2013
Police in
India's northeastern state of Mizoram have seized a huge consignment of weapons
from two hideouts of the now-defunct Shanti Bahini that used to be the military
wing of the once-rebellious Parbattya Chattogram Jansanghati Samity (PCJSS) and
ALP.
The police
have arrested three tribal men, who are suspected to belong to the ‘Shanti
Bahini’ group that remained behind in India after the rest of the rebel outfit
went back to Bangladesh following the 1997 accord between the Sheikh Hasina-led
Awami League government and the PCJSS.
Those
detained were identified as Rabi Chakma, Sabuj Chakma and Moni Tripura.
The three
detainees along with the huge cache of arms were remanded in police custody for
72 hours by a local court on Friday.
The seizure
and the arrests were made during a joint operation by, the state police CID
(Crime) and troops from the 26 battalion of the Assam Rifles.
Thirty-one
AK-47 assault rifles, one Singapore-made Light Machine Gun (LMG), one US-made
Browning Automatic Rifle 32 magazines and 809 rounds of ammunition of different
weapons were seized during two successive raids. The first raid was late on
Wednesday night, the second based on information gained from preliminary
interrogation of the three arrested took place on Thursday morning.
"The
three were earlier arrested under section 41 of the CrPC, but regular cases
including Arms Act, Foreigners Act and the Indian Passport Act were registered
at Sairang Police station under which the arms were seized," a Mizoram
police official said, but he was not willing to be named.
He said the
weapons had been smuggled into Mizoram from Myanmar but it was not clear whether
they were intended for Bangladesh or for a rebel group in Tripura, with which
these former ‘Shanti Bahini’ guerrillas seem to have a close link.
Police from
Mizoram’s neighbouring state Tripura has already send a three member team for
questioning the arrested Chakmas.
Tripura’s
Inspector General of Police Nepal Das told that initial investigations indicate
the weapons had been procured from gunrunners in Myanmar and were meant for a
rebel group in Tripura.
He said two
of those arrested were from Kanchanpur in north Tripura and one was originally
from Bangladesh.
“Mizoram has
become a major arms corridor for bringing weapons into northeast India and
Bangladesh from Myanmar,” Das said.
He said the
three arrested appeared to have turned to professional gun-running but it was
worth exploring who they were trying to send the weapons to.
Mizoram
police officials however suspect that the trio were trying to sell the weapons
to Chakma armed groups inside Bangladesh.
The PCJSS
factions are engaged in a bitter factional strife with the Prachit Khisa-led
UPDF in a bloody turf war in the Chittagong Hill Tracts since the 1997 accord.
Peace
returned to Mizoram when the separatist Mizo National Front signed an accord
with the Indian government in 1986 and their fighters based in Myanmar and
Bangladesh returned to normal life.
But Mizoram
also had bases of the Shanti Bahini in the heydays of the Chakma insurgency in
Chittagong Hill Tracts. But after the 1997 accord, most of the ‘Shanti Bahini’
fighters returned to Bangladesh and settled down in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Tribal
insurgency in Tripura has now been largely contained but a faction of the
National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) is still active under its chairman
Biswamohan Debbarma.
Now, it is
quite clear and understood that Rakine terrorist group ALP which has been
committing ethnic cleansing agaist Rohingya minority in Arakan, Burma(Myanmar),
in collaboration with RNDP enjoys complete immunity from prosecution in Mynmar
for every crime they commit only because their target is Rohingyas in Arakan
and the arm forces of Bangladesh in Chittagong area, with their ultimate goal
of annexing Chittagong into Arakan, would be governed by Rakhine terrorist
group in the future.
Government
of Thein Sein is complicit to these criminal activities of Chanti Bahani and
ALP. Otherwise one can ask, how is it possible to smuggle such a huge
consignment of weapons from Myanmar, a county where everything is so
restricted, and general public particulary Rohingya cannot even own a big
knife.
Furthermore,
there are no arms rebellions against governmet or any arm conflict in that part
of Mynmar.
Without
local and Burmese central government's consent and support it is utterly
impossible to acquire weapons of such magnitude.
There have
been many instances of weapons seized from the members of ALP during the
ethninc cleansing of Rohingyas which started from 3rd June 2012. But there are
no prosecution of anybody til today. In some cases weapons were even
redistributed to the criminals by RNDP to kill Rohingyas. As a result thousands
of Rohingyas have been killed.
Cleansing of
Rohingya from the soil of Arakan will not solve the problem for the region. It
could even create a larger regional conflict and this sets a dangerous
precedent particulary for Bangladesh because of strong cooperation among Shanti
Bahani, ALP and RNDP. Gpvernment of Bangladesh and India should be mindful and
seriously think about this and should not let the Arakan to become an arms
corridor which will destablise entire region and engulf with manmade
catastrophes.