The Armoured Police Battalion, or APBn, have recovered an assault rifle and a large amount of ammunition from a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhiya, bdnews24.com reports.
In a separate operation, four firearms and ammunition were recovered from another Rohingya camp in Teknaf, APBn officials say.
The raids took place on Thursday afternoon at the registered Rohingya camp in Nhilla Union’s Nayapara and that night at a Rohingya camp in Ukhiya’s Palankhali Union.
An APBn team conducted the raid in Ukhiya around 11 pm after receiving a tip-off that criminals were stockpiling weapons, said Additional Superintendent of Police Md Kamran Hossain, deputy commander of Ukhiya-8 APBn.
“When APBn personnel arrived at the scene, the criminals spotted them and opened fire. APBn returned fire in self-defence. At one point, the criminals retreated while shooting. After the gunfire stopped, the area was searched and an automatic assault rifle from the US and 491 bullets were recovered,” he said.
No one was caught in the raid, the APBn official said.
“We are working to identify the criminals involved in the shootout and will lead an operation to arrest them.
More details will be revealed at a press conference later in the day, the official said.
Four firearms and four bullets were recovered during a raid in a Rohingya camp around 3:30 pm on Thursday, said Superintendent of Police Mohammad Tariqul Islam, commander of the APBn-16.
“The criminals fled, so we weren’t able to make any arrests,” he said.
Drones are being used in APBn’s special operations in efforts to maintain law and order in the Rohingya camps and crack down on crime.
“Through them, we identified the presence of a gang of robbers in the hilly area next to the registered Rohingya camp in Nayapara, near Nuralipara.”
“When APBn personnel arrived at the scene, the criminals fled. A search found the guns and ammunition in a cave in the hills.”