Ctg Arms Haul
NSI official called for questioning
Coastguards, security personnel to be quizzed
Staff Correspondent, Ctg
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has asked the former assistant director of National Security Intelligence (NSI) for Chittagong to appear before investigators of the sensational Chittagong arms haul case for interrogation.
Sources said the first two investigation officers of the case would also be quizzed soon. The CID will also quiz Coast Guard and other security personnel who were on duty early April 2, 2004, when 10 truckloads of arms and ammunition were being offloaded at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL). The process to find out who were on duty that night is under way.
Meanwhile, the CID investigators have appealed to a Chittagong court to place the then CUFL managing director Mohsin Talukder and general manager (admin) Enamul Haq on a five-day remand each. The court is likely to decide on the appeal today.
The investigators issued a notice upon former NSI assistant director Mohammad Ali Chowdhury to appear at the CID Chittagong Divisional Headquarters at Dampara Police Line for questioning.
Mohammad Ali is now serving as the deputy director of NSI at Gulshan in the capital.
Sources said the investigators have sent a letter to Bangladesh Coast Guard, eastern zone, for names and addresses of the Coast Guard men who were on duty around CUFL, Bay of Bengal near Chittagong Port and offshore islands of Teknaf and Kutubdia on that April night.
They said the investigators would be interrogating at least 30 persons mentioned in the statements of the accused and witnesses in the arms case. A special wing of the CID headquarters in Dhaka has already prepared the men who were on duty around CUFL, Bay of Bengal near Chittagong Port and offshore islands of Teknaf and Kutubdia on that April night.
They said the investigators would be interrogating at least 30 persons mentioned in the statements of the accused and witnesses in the arms case. A special wing of the CID headquarters in Dhaka has already prepared the tentative list, said CID sources in Chittagong.
The first investigation officer and plaintiff of the arms case, Ahadur Rahman, the then officer-in-charge of Karnaphuli Police Station, the second investigation officer AKM Kabir Uddin, former deputy commissioner (port) Abdullahel Baki and former assistant commissioner (port) Mahmudur Rahman are on the tentative list, the sources added.
The sources claimed that Ahadur Rahman, now the district intelligence officer of Satkhira, and AKM Kabiruddin, now retired, failed to make much headway in the case.
Abdullahel Baki reportedly had a role in recording the case twice, scrapping the original one to drop the names of five person suspected to have links with Ulfa (United Liberation Front of Assam). The five were held at CUFL jetty on the night of the incident, the sources said.
On the remand prayers for the former CUFL officials, the current investigation officer of the case Muniruzzaman Chowdhury, also senior ASP of CID Chittagong Division, said, “We felt it necessary to interrogate the former managing director and the former general manager (admin) further.”
He said, “Despite being informed of the offloading of deadly weapons, the two apparently did nothing. They visited the spot neither that night nor the next day.”
“Moreover, when the security officer concerned informed the managing director of the matter in writing, he forwarded it to higher authorities in BCIC [Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation] headquarters in Dhaka,” said the investigation officer.
The former managing director and general manager were arrested Thursday after being interrogated along with others in one room and following the confessional statement given to a court by former assistant security officer of CUFL Mobin Hossain Khan.
Regarding the progress of the investigation, the investigation officer said, “We are focusing on CUFL. We have almost finished questioning CUFL officials concerned with only a few more to go.”
He said, “We would later question others in higher authorities concerned as well as those in the law enforcement and intelligence agencies.”
Courtesy of The Daily Star
