Tipped off, BDR jawans of 40 Rifles Battalion dug out the sophisticated weapons from the bank of a pond at hilly Jarullachhari near Myanmar border, three kilometres off the upazila headquarters, in their continued searching operations at noon.

The seized weapons include two 60mm and two 2-inch mortars, three British-made LMGs and its 49 magazines, 32 magazines of self-loading rifle (SLR), 11 magazines of AK47 assault rifle, and 2,000 bullets of British-made LMG.

On Tuesday, the BDR seized seven AK47 and two M16 rifles, one rocket launcher, one point 22 bore rifle, two 12-bore shotguns, two air rifles, 1,671 bullets, 1,275 of which are of AK47 and 90 of M16, from deep forest at village Techhari of the same upazila.

The BDR team led by Naikkhongchhari zone commander Lt Col Hasinur Rahman, who also led Tuesday's operations, started searching the Jarullachhari area in the morning and found the weapons beneath the ground.

The law-enforcers however remained tight-lipped about the source of the firearms despite repeated seizures of huge sophisticated firearms, explosives and ammunition in Naikkhongchhari in the recent months.

Sources said the Muslim insurgents in bordering Arakan of Myanmar might have link to the huge firearms, explosives and ammunition.

The Arakan Rohingya Nationalist Organisation and the communist groups fighting against the military ruler of Myanmar got united last year and started arms and ammunition trafficking to different countries with the help of Rohingya refugees.

Asked, Lt Col Hasinur said he does not know clearly who were hoarding the arms and ammunition in the area. He said using BDR's own intelligence network he is seizing the forearms and ammunition.

In the last few months, BDR seized huge arms, ammunition and explosives including M16 and AK47 rifles, grenades, anti-tank mine, anti-personal mine, rocket launcher, powerful bombs, wireless sets, machineguns, plastic explosives, gun powder, containers full of acid and various chemicals from the frontier area.