July 24, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1429

DHAKA: Bangladesh security forces have arrested a schoolboy and seized illegal weapons and ammunition they say he was supplying to terror groups, officials said on Monday.

“Our forces arrested Pantha Hossain Dipu, 18, from Mirpur area in the capital Dhaka, late on Sunday,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Ahmed Tabrej Shams Chowdhury, a director of Rapid Action Battalion Force said.

During questioning, the O-level student, confessed he was the leader of a gang which supplied weapons commercially to terror groups, Ahmed said.

The colonel quoted Dipu as saying he had been in the arms business for three years and earned around 75,000 taka (around $1,000) a month renting out weapons. Police seized three revolvers, a pistol, 60 rounds of ammunition, a knife and cartridge cases.

The RAB, comprising members of the army, police, paramilitary troops and auxiliary forces, is leading a crackdown against corruption, smuggling, illegal weapons and terrorism by Islamist and other militant groups.—Reuters