Bangladesh war cartridges found in Tripura

AGARTALA: Workers engaged under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) dug out as many as 386 empty cases and two live cartridges of .303 guns of the Bangladesh Liberation War from the field of one Rehman Maishaan in the Srimanthapur area along the Tripura-Bangladesh border on Sunday.

Border Security Force (BSF) personnel have taken custody of the cartridges.

BSF spokesperson B S Rawat confirmed initial investigation has revealed the empty cases of cartridges were used during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. However, the findings are yet to be sent to the forensic laboratory for further investigation.

According to reports, 18 MGNREGA labourers were engaged in mud-cutting work along the border. After digging for about two feet, they hit the cases of cartridges and informed the 29th Battalion of the BSF.

Last year, too, labourers had dug up about 700 empty cartridges of self-loading rifles and pistols near Raj Bhawan in Agartala while building the ground of a tennis complex.

Tripura had several camps of soldiers during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. Bangladeshi soldiers had fought against Pakistani military forces from Indian base camps. Most of these camps were in the western part of Tripura.

According to reports, all the cartridges were marked ‘PK’ and were manufactured between 1963 and 1970. In 1971, Tripura accommodated 16 lakh refugees, a number higher than the state’s own population at that time. Many camps of soldiers too had mushroomed during that period.  Source: TNN | Nov 11, 2013, 05.46 AM IST