A daring break-in took place in 12 rooms of the Finance Ministry, including the offices of the minister and the banking secretary, late Sunday night, officials confirmed yesterday.

The intruders forced their entry into the rooms, located on the third floor of Building No 7 at the Secretariat, and forcibly opened and rummaged through the file cabinets.

They broke into four rooms on the eastern part of the floor used by the Finance Minister anrf his staff. Including his private secretary's room and the special file room adjacent to it. The intruders also went Into eight other rooms on the western portion of the floor belonging to the newly upgraded Banking Division, including the banking secretary's room.

Two separate Fl Rs were filed with Ramna Thana and police picked up three government employees working at the building for questioning but released them later.

Finance Ministry officials insisted that nothing was miss-

ing from the rooms that were broken into. "Nothing was found to be missing from the rooms." they claimed.

Police Investigators later found that although some of the locks in the rooms were broken, the locks In the two sets of collapsible gates in each portion of the floor remained intact.

Guards at the building told police that the collapsible gates on the floor were closed Immediately the last officer left his office around 4:15.pm Sunday.

However, the main ground floor entrance to the building was only closed around 11 pm. when other Finance Ministry officials at the second floor, working late hours perhaps on the upcoming budget, left their offices, police was told.

Later, police also found that the eastern wing of the third floor could also be entered through one of the offices located In front of the staircase. Police Is continuing the investigation.

Official sources suspected

that the motive of the intruders was not petty theft but they were perhaps looking for some "important papers."

The latest break-in high lights once again the vulnerability of the security arrangements at the Secretariat, the scat of I he government administration. In recent years, a number of daring break-ins. and at least one case of suspected arson, took place at the Secretariat in the ministries of Environment. Civil Aviation and Health and other offices.