Ex-police officer quizzed in arms smuggling case

A retired police officer has been quizzed by the Bangladesh Criminal Investigation Department probing a case of smuggling of arms meant for ULFA militants in northeastern India.
    
The CID is investigating into the smuggling of ten truck loads of arms, believed to be meant for ULFA hideouts in Assam in India, which was seized by the Bangladesh security forces from southeastern port city of Chittagong in 2004.
    
Officials said that they quizzed former deputy inspector general (DIG) Shamsul Islam for nearly seven hours, weeks after the investigators grilled a former home ministry bureaucrat Omar Faruque as part of a fresh probe into Bangladesh's biggest ever weapon haul.
    
A CID official on condition of anonymity said they questioned Islam about a high-level probe committee's finding earlier implicating only five people and creating scopes for other suspects to evade the charge.
    
"The former DIG told us the committee had to submit the probe report in a haste following the directive of former home secretary Omar Faruque, who led the probe body," he said.    

The development came days after police said they were trying to identify the ship which smuggled the weapons, to be supplied apparently to the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) hideouts, into Bangladesh.
    
Earlier Faruque was questioned as he was the head of a five-member high-powered investigation committee while at least two of them, the two detained former chiefs of the country's top intelligence agencies and ex army generals; themselves were suspected to be involved in the haul.
    
The Prothom Alo newspaper quoting another official familiar with the investigation reported that the committee apparently completed its responsibility giving only a five-page superficial report, visibly to help the masterminds of the haul to evade justice.
    
The report said Faruque told the investigators that the committee "could work freely but not properly" due to "time constraint" as they were given only two weeks time excluding the holidays.
    
The committee had named five people including the owner of the boats used in carrying the weapons from the ship to shore a porter leader and owner of a porter contracting firm who had little idea about the main plan.
    
CID, which was tasked to re-investigate the case, last month obtained an extended three months time from a Chittagong court while the reinvestigation process yielded the arrest of several high-profile intelligence officials including the two ex-army generals who earlier headed the apex National Security Intelligence (NSI).
    
The past military-backed government last year had ordered re-investigation amid allegations that there was a deliberate attempt on the part of the then administration of ex-premier Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government to suppress facts to weaken the case.    

An earlier report quoting CID officials said detained ex-NSI chief retired brigadier general Abdur Rahim and another official of the intelligence agency told interrogators and the court that Dubai-based ARY business group and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) were involved in the abortive weapon smuggling.
    
Rahim and his successor in NSI retired major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, three other officials of the intelligence agency were arrested and quizzed in custody as part of the investigation in the past several months while officials said they found clues of involvement of at least one politician belonging to BNP in the haul.
    
Rahim was the NSI chief during the seizure of the weapons while Haidar succeeded him as both served as the top boss of the main intelligence agency during the 2001-2006 BNP regime.
    
Chowdhury, however, was removed and sent to retirement instantly after the proclamation of the state of emergency installing an interim government with crucial military support on January 11, 2007.
    
The seized weapons included over 27,000 grenades, 150 rocket launchers, over 11lakh ammunitions and 1,100 sub machine guns. The arms were unloaded at a government jetty on April 2004 but were seized by security agencies despite the suspected involvement of the intelligence officials in the smuggling bid, which was reportedly being overseen by ULFA leader Paresh Barua.