Moniruzzaman Chowdhury, investigating officer (IO) of the Chittagong arms haul cases, testified before the court of SM Mujibur Rahman, judge of the Special Tribunal-1, during the hearing of the Chittagong arms haul cases for the third day on Sunday. Chowdhury said that NSI official Liakot Hossain had identified himself as ULFA leader Abul Hossain and monitored the unloading of arms from ships on the night of April 1, 2001.
“Liakot Hossain admitted that he was involved in arms smuggling and that he had introduced himself as ULFA leader Abul Hossain to conduct the unloading of arms at the CUFL jetty. He agreed to give confessional statement during the investigation. But, he denied to give statement when he was produced before the court,” he added.
He also said that Akber Hossain had confessed to have rented 10 trucks for carrying the arms as per the directives of former NSI director Shahabuddin Ahamed. Liakot Hossain was present during the unloading of arms from those trucks at THE CUFL jetty.
Moniruzzaman Chowdhury said, “After Akber Hossain was arrested, he gave confessional statement before the court under Section 164. I reviewed the statement and confirmed that Akber Hossain had rented 10 trucks from Green Ways Transport at Dewanhat in Chittagong. Akber had rented the trucks as per the directives of Shahabuddin. I arrested Shahabuddin. Later, as per the statement of Shahabuddin, I confirmed that former NSI director general Rejjakul Hyder Chowdhury, Md Abdur Rahim and Liakot Hossain were involved in the smuggling, transporting and unloading of arms.”
“I had arrested Mohoshin Talukdar, then managing director of CUFL, and KM Enamul Haque, then general manager of CUFL, as they were also involved in the the arms smuggling, unloading and transporting. But, they sent a report to the industry ministry, hiding the incident and their involvement in it,” he added.
“As Liakot Hossain denied to give confessional statement before the court, we had arranged TI Parade and he was identified by witnesses. After identification, the witnesses said that Liakot Hossain had introduced himself as ULFA leader Abul Hossain who monitored the unloading of arms,” Chowdhury told the court.
The court adjourned the hearing till Monday. Moniruzzaman Chowdhury will complete his testimony after the resumption of the court session.
It may be mentioned that Chowdhury had started to give his testimony before the court on April 22 last. A total of 29 persons have already given testimonies before the court.
-With The Independent input
