| Submit your comments on this article |
| Bangladesh |
| Chittagong arms vessel not identified yet |
| 2009-03-27 |
| The investigators of Chittagong arms haul are now trying to identify the vessel that carried the huge cache of deadly weapons to the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) jetty in the early hours of April 02, 2004. "We will try to know the names of vessels that arrived at the Chittagong Port at that time, the consignments they were carrying and the dates of their arrival," said CID Chittagong Divisional Special Superintendent Mohammad Muslim. In reply to a question, investigation officer CID ASP Muniruzzaman Chowdhury said they might seek help from the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) in this regard. "But we are yet to send any letter to the port authority requesting them to help us with information," he added. When contacted CPA Director (traffic) Ahsanul Kabir told The Daily Star that they would be ready to help the investigators with any information they may want. Sources said investigators had information that one vessel named the Banga Borak left Singapore for Chittagong Port on March 24 and among the containers it was carrying three were empty. The vessel had scopes to load the empty containers somewhere on the way and offload before reaching Chittagong Port, said the sources. Following news reports published yesterday that mentioned the Banga Borak as the suspected vessel, officials of the shipping lines concerned rushed to the Criminal Investigation Department's Chittagong divisional headquarters at Dampara Police Lines to refute the allegation and clear their position. Later, talking to The Daily Star in the evening, HRC Shipping Lines Director Khandakar Sirajuddin Ahmed said, "Their vessel [Banga Borak] may have carried empty containers but there was no scope for it to load or offload anything on the way. The shipping lines will never involve in such nasty matters, compromising its business reputation." He said, "It is not unlikely that the mainline operators may have one or more empty containers in a vessel. The previous investigation officer of the case also enquired thoroughly about the vessel and found nothing...We told the CID that the matter could be investigated again," said the HRC director. When contacted, Investigation Officer Muniruzzaman said, "We have not yet identified any specific vessel that carried the deadly weapons." He said they are examining Havilder Golam Rasul's statement made during interrogation at the CID Chittagong headquarters on Wednesday. Rasul had said the first GD filed in connection with the arms haul was torn off and replaced with a fresh one dropping names of arrested five persons suspected as members of Ulfa. Havilder Golam Rasul was on duty at Bandar Police Outpost on April 01 night. He was one the first few cops to have received information about the offloading of firearms at CUFL jetty. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "CID Chittagong Divisional Special Superintendent Mohammad Muslim" That'll work well for my new business cards. |
| Posted by: Mullah Richard 2009-03-27 16:52 |