A group of armed people attacked a temporary camp of joint forces at Jungle Salimpur in Sitakunda upazila of Chattogram early Monday, opening fire and damaging its structures with a bulldozer.
Joint forces later detained 25 people during an 11-hour operation following the attack, Rapid Action Battalion-7 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Hafizur Rahman said after the operation ended on Monday afternoon.
He said that about 250 to 300 armed criminals launched the sudden attack on the temporary camp at Alinagar of Jungle Salimpur at about 1:00am.
The attackers opened fire on the camp and used a bulldozer to damage its walls and other structures, he said.
‘About 150 RAB and police members stationed at the camp immediately resisted the attack. They fired blank shots to bring the situation under control. Later, the joint forces carried out an operation with additional personnel support,’ Hafizur said.
He said that the attackers had cut roads and damaged culverts at least at four points so that law enforcers could not reach the spot quickly.
So, they had to leave their vehicles far from the scene and reach the area on foot, the RAB officer said.
He said that the detained people were being interrogated.
‘The operation is still under way to identify and arrest the others involved in the attack,’ he added.
Hafizur claimed that a criminal gang led by Yasin had carried out the attack in a planned way. Several criminals, however, managed to flee during the operation.
No member of law enforcement agencies was injured in the incident, he added.
Chattogram district police superintendent Md Masud Alam, while talking to reporters at Alinagar, said that law enforcement agencies had two temporary camps at Jungle Salimpur, one at Chhinnamul and another at Alinagar.
‘The Alinagar camp is now housed in a school, where members of the RAB, police, Armed Police Battalion and Rapid Reaction Force are stationed. A new camp is being built nearby, but forces are yet to move there. Their (the attackers’) main objective was to ensure that no law enforcement camp remained in the area,’ he said.
Masud said that the attackers had also wanted to confine the law enforcement members by cutting roads.
‘They used firearms during the attack. The forces at the camp also retaliated. They fired 104 rounds of bullet from Chinese rifles and shotguns and used gas shells. As the forces resisted strongly, none of our members was injured,’ he said.
According to the police superintendent, the attackers were forced to retreat from the area at about 4:00am following the resistance from the joint forces.
Jungle Salimpur, Masud said, is a place of ‘huge interest’ as criminal groups had built an illegal empire involving crores of taka in the area.
‘As their empire is slipping out of their hand, they are trying to create pressure. But whatever they do, law enforcement agencies will remain here and more members will be deployed. There is no scope for us to retreat,’ he said.
He said that not only Yasin, but everyone behind the attack would be identified and brought to justice.
‘Our main objective is to maintain the law and order at Jungle Salimpur, restore peace in the locality, and allow no other “state” inside the state. We will do whatever is necessary to achieve this objective,’ the SP said.
Earlier, criminals opened fire targeting the law enforcers’ camp at Alinagar after 1:00am on Monday.
Before the attack, the criminals used an excavator to dig deep trenches on several roads leading to Alinagar under the cover of darkness.
On March 9, the government took control of Jungle Salimpur through a joint forces operation involving about 3,200 members of the army, RAB, police and Border Guard Bangladesh.
According to Chattogram district administration officials, several thousand illegal settlements have been built in government hills and khas lands in the remote Jungle Salimpur hilly area over the past four decades after the occupation of the area.
The area had been known as a safe haven for hill cutters, land grabbers, and armed criminals, they said.
Jungle Salimpur covers some 3,100 acres of land and the market value of the land along the link road is about Tk 9-10 lakh per decimal, totalling the estimated value of the occupied government khas land about Tk 30,000 crore, according to district administration officials.
