Dhaka police look for ship that carried arms for Indian militants

DHAKA - Bangladesh police are trying to identify the ship that carried 10 truck-loads of arms and ammunition meant for an Indian militant outfit in 2004, a media report said.

The police have been able to ferret out information from senior officials involved in shipping the contraband consignment, a media report said.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) say that the identity of the ship could help get the information about who sent the arms and ammunition, The Daily Star said Sunday.

Earlier reports have said the consignment was meant for the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) that operates in India’s Assam state.

Its top leaders are hiding in Bangladesh and operating bases from there, a charge Dhaka denied earlier but has now been pursuing vigorously since the change of government in January.

During the investigations and trial before a court in Chittagong town, the ship was said to belong to a company owned by Salahuddin Qader Chowdhury, a senior lawmaker belonging to former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, investigating officer of the case told BSS, the official news agency of Bangladesh, that though it was difficult to identify the vessel, they were trying hard to find it out by interrogating all suspects found involved in the process of unloading and transporting the smuggled consignment.

The consignment, reportedly purchased from China, was brought to the port by trawlers and the ship left the Bangladeshi waters April 1, 2004.

The authorities have jailed two former Bangladesh Army generals, Major General Rezaqul Hyder Chowdhury and Brigadier General Abdur Rahim who held top posts in the intelligence outfits - National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the Directorate General of Field intelligence (DGFI).

Among the civilian officers being interrogated is former home secretary Abdul Karim.