A completely bed ridden man is supplying illegal arms and ammunitions to the top terrorists, pirates and some political leaders for about last five years.
The physically disabled person is maintaining his supply chain of deadly arms among the terrorist groups in association with some other legal gun shop owners of the country.
Officials of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC), a specialized unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police( DMP) unearthed such a network. Small arms experts warned the law enforcing agencies about the dangerous consequences, if these sophisticated arms reach the hands of any militant groups in any way. They suggested to develop a new mechanism for dealing with the legal gun shop owners and to intensify vigilances. CTTC is hunting Robi, a middle aged man hailing from Kosba village under Jashore Sadar Upazila, who is the main supplier of these legal arms illegally.
Local people know him as a vegetable farmer. Thus he became popular as ‘Sobji Robi’ in the region. But his main profession is supplying arms to the underworld. Recently Arms Enforcement Team of the Special Action Group ( SAG) of CTTC arrested two arms dealers from the capital. They were involved in illegal arms dealing using license of gun shops.
The two members of the gang were arrested with foreign pistols and ammunitions. During the primary interrogation, they admitted that they were going to supply the fire arms to one Robi. They also disclosed that previously they had supplied at least twenty consignments of fire arms through Robi to the members of some underworld groups.
The arrested were identified as Mirza Bashar Beg and Abu Jafar Md Rezaul Karim alias Mukul. According to the CTTC officials, Mirza Bashar Beg hails from Noapara area under Jashore Sadar Upazila. He is the owner of Beg Arms and Company, the only gun shop in Chuadanga district. Mukul hails from Bogura Sadar Upazila. He is the manager of Khaja Arms, another gun shop in Bogura district.
On April 4, Bashar and Mokul were arrested from the city’s Gabtoli area. They were going to supply arms to Robi and his associate who is known as ‘Pagla Bhai’. CTTC seized two foreign pistols and 56 rounds of bullets from their possessions. Talking to the reporters, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Arms Enforcement Team Md Jahangir Alam said, “ Both Bashar and Mukul are illegal arms suppliers misusing their legal gun shop license.”
They were supplying foreign made sophisticated fire arms to the criminals through a strong syndicate. We came to know about some members of the groups including Khaja Habib Hossain, Robi and Paglabhai, he added. “We are conducting drives to arrest all those involved in the arms trading gangs’’ he continued.
As per law, both seller and buyer must inform in written form to the District Commissioner while selling or buying any arms and ammunition.
But ignoring the rules, huge numbers of arms and ammunition were being handed over to the criminals from the Beg arms shop and Khaja arms shop.
Arrested Bashar and Mukul admitted that they were supplying foreign arms to the different parts of the country through Robi. Another officer of CTTC said, “ Khaja Habib Hossain, owner of Khaja Arms, his manager Mukul and Beg Arms and Company’s owner Bashar used to collect sophisticated arms of different leading brands of foreign arms illegally. Later these arms were being supplied to the criminal groups through Robi.
As per documents, 20 arms from Khaja Arms and 30 arms from Beg arms, were illegally handed over to the criminals. Another 150 arms were illegally handed over to the criminals by other legal gun shops. Most of the arms were illegally handed over to the criminals through Robi. “If we can arrest Robi, we shall be able to know the exact number of arms and ammunition which were illegally handed over to the criminals,” ADC Jahangir, the boss of Arms Enforcement Group added.
By interrogating him, the names of other arm shops which are also involved in illegal arms trading would be revealed. ADC Jahangir said, “We have already sent letters to the DCs of Bogura and Chuadanga seeking details of arms and ammunition supplies of Beg and Khaja arms shop.” After getting the official information from two DC offices, we shall calculate the original figures of illegal arms handed over from the two legal arms shops.
Robi in association with some legal arms shop owners, has established a wide network of supplying illegal arms.
He mainly supplies arms to the extortionists, political leaders and top terrorists in Jashore, Chuadanga, Kustia, and Meherpur districts. Insurgents and pirates in the Sundharban area were also his regular clients. He collects all of these arms from legal arms shops. He buys arms worth around Tk 1 lakh and he sells them with four times profit.
Beg Arms got license in 2011. But in last eight years, there was no single data entry of selling arms and ammunition. But every year, the owner of the company has renewed his shop license. Bashar Beg owner of the Beg Arms shop has closed relations with Khaja Arms shop owner Khaja Habib. They collect arms showing their gun shop license. But they did not register these in their register books. Instead, they illegally supplied the arms among the criminal groups through Robi. Khaja Habib is bed ridden after he suffered a serious brain stroke. He cannot move for last four to five years after his stroke. He has not opened his shop in last four to five years.
But still he is continuing with his illegal arms business lying in bed through his greedy manager Mukul. Robi has relations with Babul, owner of a gun shop in Netrokona and another gun shop owner in Khulna Sobodh Dodi. Robi has also been supplying double barrel guns among some insurgent groups and pirates.
Foyez Ahmed , DC of Bogura said, “I have yet to get any letter from the police about illegal arms dealing of Khaja arms shop. But I am looking into the matter.”
Gopal Chandra Das, DC of Chuadanga also said he is not aware of illegal arms business of Beg arms shop. I shall definitely investigate about the allegation, he added.