Despite State Minister for Home Lutforzzaman Babar's claim the largest ever arms cache seized on the Chittagong coast on Friday was smuggled in for use in Bangladesh, top intelligence officials said the haul was bound for a foreign destination.

Top intelligence agents said their foreign counterparts tipped off them about the gunrunning a few days ago, saying Bangladesh was being used as a transit route.

They suggested that the consignment was possibly heading towards Assam in restive northeast India from the golden triangle or Southeast Asia.

Babar on Friday said the arms and ammunition were heading towards Dhaka for use against key installations and rallies in Dhaka.

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The junior minister's suggestion was reaffirmed by Shahudul Haque, inspector general of police, who said: "If the weapons were not meant for use in Bangladesh, they would have left the country by now."

SECURITY BEEFED UP

Babar held a meeting with top home ministry and police officers yesterday to beef up national security.

A team led by Criminal Investigation Department's deputy inspector general for Chittagong was formed bringing member of other intelligence agencies to strengthen securityin the port city.

Four police teams were dispatched to Chittagong and a joint drive was being considered in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

The arms and ammunition seized by the police and coastguard were handed over to the army after preparation of a seizure list yesterday.

INVESTIGATION ON

Chittagong police said they were not sure whether a ship offloaded the arms to trawlers at sea.

They were trying to hunt down the owners of the trucks and trawlers engaged in the transport of the haul.

Intelligence agents hinted at the direct involvement of the workers of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited jetty were the arms were unloaded into trucks from two trawlers.

PUBLIC OUTCRY

The arms seizure in Chittagong sparked a torrent of criticism of security measures and triggered widespread speculation.

In Chittagong, wild speculations ran on the origin of the arms, their destination and objectives of the operatives and outfits collecting the cache.

Panic-stricken locals asked how the weapons reached the jetty evading naval force and coastguard watch.

Babar told newspersons on Friday that fishing and cargo vessels carried the cache, hidden under sacks of salt, rice and husk.

The fertiliser factory authorities said the jetty of the key point installation long remained quite unprotected.

Authorities constructed the jetty to smoothly run the factory's transport through waterways.

But vested quarters were mooring their vessels to the jetty and along the bank without approval from the authorities concerned, they said.

Loading and unloading of cargo continued there without any supervi-

sion of the port or customs officials.

General Manager (Administration) ABM Nowsher in a letter on behalf of the factory last year asked the higher police authorities to take action against illegal berthing.

The letter said apart from posing serious threat to the security and safety of the port city, illegal berthing was also harming the jetty and movement of vessels carrying the factory products by blocking the river channel.

But his request went unheard, leaving the jetty completely unprotected and suitable for use by international syndicates of gunrunners.

With the help of about 150 workers, the gunrunning gang under the supervision of two youths started handling the hardware in the evening and continued until a huge contingent of police led by Chittagong Metropolitan Police's Deputy Commissioner for north Abdullahil Baki reached the scene at about 3:00pm.