Bangladesh has put border guards on alert and ordered them to hunt down arms smugglers as the biggest ever arms haul in the southeastern port city of Chittagong has sent an alarm bell ringing in the country. The final destination of the cache remains unclear. Home (Interior) Ministry officials said yesterday the coast guard has stepped up surveillance at Chittagong and Mongla ports and the police and army at airports. âThe entire Chittagong coast is now under strict vigilance of the navy and the coast guards to track down ferries with arms, â officials said.
âThe sources and destination of the arms are not clear. But this is an old story: Bangladesh is being used as a transit point for its geographical location,â said retired Gen. Syed M. Ibrahim, chief of nongovernmental organization Center for Peace and Strategic Development in Dhaka. Police were yesterday questioning five men about the haul of smuggled rocket launchers, AK-47 assault rifles and grenades. Coast guard and police agents found the weapons late Thursday on two fishing boats at Chittagong Port. The haul included nearly 2,000 weapons, 2,000 hand grenades and about 300,000 rifle bullets, Chittagong police said. The weapons included AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers and anti-tank mines, police said. All were âbrand new and made in China,â a police statement said.
| Wonder who paid for them? Any receipts? |
Police arrested and were questioning five men from the boats, said Abdullah Baki, a police officer in Chittagong. He said dozens of others involved in unloading the cargo fled under cover of darkness. Police used 10 trucks to transport the haul to a nearby police station. âWe believe these modern weapons were intended to run subversive activities in Bangladesh,â Lutfozzaman Babar, junior minister for home affairs, told reporters.
Babar called it part of a âconspiracy to create instability.â He did not elaborate.
| You don't have to conspire to create instability in Bangla. Just stand on a street corner and wait five minutes. |
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