Uttara arms haul

It was providence, in the form of a lone police man and his family who happened to be near the spot and who warned the police about suspicious activity on the banks of a canal in Turag in Ashulia that helped the law enforcing agencies to recover a large cache of weapons and ammunition on Saturday.

Proliferation of illicit small arms has plagued the country for a long time and, of late, the phenomenon has become extremely severe. The recent catch adds to our discomfort and calls for the agencies to go to the bottom to uncover the owners and the country of origin of the weapons. Unlike the Chittagong arms on April 1, 2004, these weapons, apparently, have been manufactured specifically for use by clandestine groups since it does not bear the mark of country of origin. That notwithstanding, the serial numbers should contain a code which should help in determining the country of manufacture if not the group involved in trading them in the country. 

The circumstances of the discovery raise some questions too. It is quite unthinkable that a clandestine group, under pressure to jettison a cache of weapons, as the police commissioner averred, would take the risk of transporting such a large quantity of illicit armaments in broad daylight. That it did so with a feeling of impunity is borne out by the fact that the car carrying the loads was without number plate and apparently passed through several checkpoints. The sooner the police resolve the mystery the sooner will our anxiety be allayed.