Rab has busted a militant training camp camouflaged as a poultry and livestock farm in Banshkhali of Chittagong and arrested five people and seized some firearms and training equipment.

Their recoveries include three AK-22 assault rifles, six pistols, a revolver, three locally made guns, 751 bullets of different types and three machetes. There were also some equipment for martial art training, Rab-7 said.

After gleaning information from 12 militant suspects arrested at a madrasa in Hathazari of Chittagong on February 19, Rab launched the drive in the Lotmoni hilly area of Sadhanpur union around 5:00pm Saturday, the Rapid Action Battalion claimed.

The drive at the farm, two kilometres away from any locality, lasted about 13 hours.

Rab-7 Commanding Officer Lt Col Miftah Uddin Ahmed said Mobarak Hossain and his brother Abdullah were looking after the "farm". Both are on the run.

Rab arrested Mobassher Hossain, 17, of Faridpur, Abdul Khalek Huraira, 21, of Mymensingh, Amir Hossain Ishaq, 25, of Gopalganj, Aminul Islam Hamja, 22, and Habibur Rahman Tasim, 19, of Tangail at the training centre.

The five people Rab arrested in this connection. Rab-7 raided the camp, in disguise of a livestock farm, following information gleaned from people they arrested on February 19 at a madrasa in Hathazari of Chittagong. Photo: Star

Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director Legal and Media Wing of Rab, while briefing reporters at the farm yesterday afternoon said they have come to know from the arrestees that training was being given in phases.

First, people of poor families were selected and brought in to the madrasa in Hathhazari. They were motivated towards Arabic and Islamic education there, he said.

Later, they were sent to the farm and motivated towards militancy and videos and photos were used to make the trainees believe Muslims around the world were being tortured, he claimed.

Commander Mufti said they were also shown speeches of the leaders of different militant organisations, like al-Qaeda and ISIS, and footage of guerrilla warfare of these organisations.

He said they were trained at night.

Forkan, a local youth, said they had no idea about the training centre and that all they knew was that it was a farm. People avoided the area fearing wild elephants, he added.

The farm has a thatched-house, six corrugated iron sheet buildings, two toilets and some poultry, cows, sheep, chicken and ducks.