Bangladesh police seizes huge unclaimed weapons

Dhaka: A huge cache of weapons, including two rocket launchers and 62 Chinese-made machine guns, were on Friday seized from an artificial lake near here and detained three persons for questioning, police said.

Acting on a tip-off, police seized 62 Chinese-made sub- machine guns, two rocket launchers, 42 hand grenades, fire pistols and huge ammunitions that were found wrapped in poly bags as the fire service divers joined police in recovering those from an artificial lake in Rupganj of Narayanganj city near Dhaka.

Three persons have been arrested for questioning in this connection, police said.

Divers continued their search of the canal where most of the weapons were found submerged.

"The firearms and ammunition have been assembled here in a bid to carry out sabotages in the country," Inspector General Shahidul Haque said.

Police, however, could not name any group or confirm any terror outfit's link to the cache.

Bangladesh witnessed an intensified anti-militancy clampdown across the country as the police headquarters recently circulated a list of nearly 5,000 suspected militants to all district police chiefs.

In March, Bangladeshi police conducted series of large- scale operations against militants, in which at least 17 suspected militants were killed.

On March 31, eight militants blew themselves up with a grenade after the security forces raided their hideout north of the Bangladeshi capital.