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Shoddy work, political motives bury probes into gunrunning

Staff Correspondent
Masterminds of recent arms and ammunition seizure could not be hunted down because of political interference, shoddy investigation, hurried submission of charge-sheets and lack of co-ordination among law enforcement agencies, intelligence officials said.
Although law-enforcers arrested some people for their involvement in carrying the 'giant deadly consignments' by fluke, bosses of the gunrunning rackets remained beyond their reach.
Investigation officers of the sensational cases submitted 'bungled charge-sheets' in a hurry under •pressure from the highfliers in politics, they said.
In the sensational arms and munitions seizurein Bogra and Kuril in Dhaka, major discrepancies were found in witness statements and in the findings of charge-sheets in what some saw 'a ruse to harass opposition political leaders and save people close to the government'.
'lite seizure of 10 truckloads of sophisticated firearms including
rockets, rocket launchers, submachine-guns, grenades. AK-47 rifles and bullets from Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Factory jetty on April 2 was the biggest ever such incident in Bangladesh, but police are yet to unravel the case.
The home ministry probe into the haul primarily linked 'three ordinary people' to the gunrunning, but could not find out the masterminds.
"We will obtain the details of the crime after tire arrest of three men -the owner of the trawler, labour
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contractor and a local criminal," Home Secretary Muhammad Omar Farooq said.
A number of retired army officers suggested that an international syndicate of gunrunners was taking the cache to a third country, but State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar said the arms were smuggled in for use in Bangladesh.
On June 27 last year, police seized over one lakh bullets and about 200 kilograms of explosives from an abandoned truck parked near a brick-kiln in Jogarpara village in Bogra.
Police after a firefight seized four AK-47 assault rifles with over 1,000 bullets, two revolvers, 20 grenades and four time bombs from a signboard shop in the capital's Kuril Badda area on November 30 last year.
There are allegations that charge-sheets in the arms busts were submitted to courts in a hurry to victimise the political opponents of the government, diverting attention from the real gunrunners.
A survey of the cases reveal that the findings in the charge-sheets, the first information reports and witness accounts are not the same.
In all the charge-sheets police tried to establish the political identity of the accused in an apparent attempt to shift the blames onto the main opposition Awami League and
suggest that the arms consignments were smuggled in to topple the government.
Locals alleged that police tried to hunt down Ashish Dev Barma in the wake of Bogra ammunition seizure, but shifted the focus of probe on political grounds.
In the Kuril case, accused Abdul Aziz and Mehedi Hasan Manik linked Lincoln to the crime in confessional statements in court, but the investigation officer in the chargesheet dropped his name on grounds that he did not find out his address.
Locals allege police dropped his name under political pressure as he is associated with a top ruling alliance leader.
Investigation officer of the case, Criminal Investigation Department's Assistant Superintendent Munshi Atiqur Rahman, said he submitted the charge sheet on the basis of his investigation.
On dropping Lincoln's name, he said he mentioned in the chargesheet that he would place a supplementary one on tracing the address of Lincoln.
Asked whether raids are on to nab the accused, Atiqur said he has sent warrant orders to the police station concerned in what many see a 'subtle tactic not to arrest' a criminal.