Rapid Action Battalion arrested a district-level Sramik League leader and claimed to have recovered 19 illegal firearms and over 600 bullets from his house in Cox's Bazar's Kutubdia yesterday.

Monwarul Islam Chowdhury Mukul, 52, is the joint general secretary of Cox's Bazar district unit of  Sramik League, an affiliated body of the ruling Awami League.

Shafiullah Ansari, general secretary of Sramik League's Cox's Bazar district unit, confirmed Mukul's political identity. Mukul is also a former president of Kutubdia upazila unit Sramik League, Shafiullah added.

The seized firearms and bullets include six single-barrel breech-loading (SBBL) guns, 13 "one shooter guns", 21 bullets of 0.12 bore and 600 bullets of 0.22 bore, said Major Ruhul Amin, company commander of Rab-7 in Cox's Bazar.

He said a team of Rab-7 village around 3:00am.

He said Rab conducted the drive, acting on a tip-off that some criminals with firearms gathered in the village to carry out criminal activities.

The Rab official said they had also information that criminals in the area were involved in crimes like extortion and robbery.

The criminals always keep firearms to establish supremacy and create panic among locals in the area, he added.

Gleaning information from Mukul, Rab men recovered the illegal firearms and ammunition from different places of the house.

During primary interrogation, Mukul "admitted keeping the firearms and ammunition to carry out criminal activities", added the Rab official.

Zia Md Mostafiz Bhuiyan, officer-in-charge of Kutubdia Police Station, said Rab handed over Mukul to the police station along with the seized firearms and bullets. A case was filed against Mukul under the Arms Act.