The Special Task Force (STF) of West Bengal Police recovered 15 firearms and 56 rounds of live ammunition from abandoned quarters of Eastern Coalfield Limited (ECL) in Andal, near the industrial township of Durgapur in West Burdwan district, following night-long raids on Saturday, 9 August. The operations, which ran from Saturday night into early Sunday morning, were led by STF sleuths acting on intelligence extracted from two arrested coal mafia operatives.

How the Arms Cache Was Found

The breakthrough came after the STF brought two recently arrested coal smugglers — Shamsher Hossain and an associate identified as Khairul — to the Andal site during the search operations. Shamsher, described by officials as a notorious coal mafia figure, was arrested last Tuesday from Ranchi in neighbouring Jharkhand. Khairul, believed to be Shamsher's partner in coal smuggling, had been arrested the previous month. Both were in STF custody and had undergone extended interrogation before being taken to the site.

According to officials, the interrogation yielded several critical leads, which directly guided the search teams to the cache hidden within the ECL's abandoned residential quarters. ECL is a subsidiary of the public sector Coal India Limited.

Arms Trafficking Link Under Scrutiny

The discovery of the weapons has prompted investigators to examine whether Shamsher and Khairul operated beyond coal smuggling and were also involved in illegal arms trafficking. A state police officer confirmed that further interrogation would be conducted specifically along these lines.

'Now, the recovery of the arms and ammunition is hinting towards their parallel involvement in arms trafficking. They will be interrogated again to investigate along these lines,' the officer said.

Background: Coal Smuggling in Bengal and Jharkhand

Illegal coal trade has been a long-running problem across West Bengal and Jharkhand, with both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducting parallel probes in the matter. In West Bengal, several individuals associated with the previous administration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and certain All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders had previously come under the scanner of central agencies in connection with the coal scam.

The latest weapons haul adds a more dangerous dimension to what was already a high-profile criminal network, raising questions about the scale and reach of operations run by figures like Shamsher.

What Investigators Are Probing Next

STF officials are expected to conduct fresh rounds of interrogation with both Shamsher and Khairul to map the source and intended destination of the recovered firearms. Investigators will also look into whether additional caches may be concealed at other abandoned or disused ECL sites in the region. The dual probe — into coal smuggling and now potential arms trafficking — is likely to draw in central agencies already active in the area.