Rapid Action Battalion arrested one of the cousin brothers of ethnic armed group Kuki-Chin National Front chief, Nathan Bawm, in an overnight raid to his house in Sualok union of the hilly district of Bandarban on Saturday.

RAB-15 commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel HM Sajjad Hossain said that they had arrested Cheusim Bawm, 55, and branded him as a close associate of KNF chief Nathan.

Sajjad said that Cheusim was found in an iron locker during their drive to his house and would be prosecuted in one of the cases filed recently. Two airguns were seized from his house.

Cheusim was arrested as law enforcement agencies launched a drive against KNF, which allegedly carried out attacks on three banks and police installations, looted over Tk 15 lakh, and snatched away 14 firearms and over 400 bullets from the police and Ansar battalion between April 2 and 3.

A day after the visit of home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and senior officials, army chief General SM Shafiuddin Ahmed visited the Bandarban region on Sunday and said that they had no prior intelligence about the possible attack on those banks.

‘Had we received advanced information [about the attacks], we would have taken the necessary steps,’ the army chief told reporters in Bandarban after addressing soldiers serving in the region.

After being cornered last June, the army chief said the KNF appeared willing to negotiate, but unfortunately, their commitment to peace was superficial, as evidenced by their continued involvement in criminal acts.

He said his force, along with Border Guard Bangladesh, police, RAB, and others, were now conducting coordinated operations.

Some would be clandestine, some would be combined, and if necessary, Bangladeshi forces would confront the KNF, he said.

The army chief said several people were arrested by the law enforcement agencies, and two firearms were seized, but he was not sure whether those were the looted items.

The army chief vowed that the operation would continue until extremist activities were stopped.