Joint forces yesterday seized around 3.6 lakh sacks of rotten basic commodities including wheat, sugar, lentil and over 1.5 lakh sacks of fertilisers from Chittagong and Khulna.

The forces also arrested eight people for involvement in food adulteration and fertiliser hoarding.

The army and Rapid Action Battalion in separate operations yesterday seized over 1.5 lakh sacks of fertiliser, 1.9 lakh sacks of rotten wheat, sugar, lentil, etc. and arrested two people in Majhirghat area, our staff correspondent in Chittagong reports.

A team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) led by Lt Commander Shamim raided two large warehouses, owned by AKM Monaf, in Majhirghat area of Doublemooring at around 12:00noon.

Rab seized 90 thousand sacks fertilisers including TSP, Urea and

MP and arrested two people. The arrested are Mintu and warehouse caretaker Uttam Kumar Sharma.

Quoting the arrestees, Rab officer Shamim told journalists that three fertiliser hoarders -- Nasir Uddin, Mohammad Hossain and Ratan Kumar -- have been importing fertilisers for the last couple of years and stockpiling those in the two warehouses.

The three hoarders imported fertilisers through Akhtar Enterprise, Islam Trading and Desh Trading.

One of them, Nasiruddin, is president of Bangladesh Fertiliser Association, Chittagong chapter. The three belong to a smuggling cartel that have been smuggling out huge quantities of fertilisers to neighbouring countries, sources said.

Meanwhile, a team of army seized around 1.9 lakh sacks of inedible low-grade basic com-

modities including wheat, sugar, lentil, etc. and around 60 thousand sacks of fertiliser from two warehouses of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) that were rented out to a few importers.

BIWTA Deputy General Manager (commercial) Nurul Alam Akand said Parvez Mohammad Kamaluddin, owner of Ahmed Ullah & Brothers, rented the warehouses two years ago.

In Khulna, joint forces arrested six people and seized 1.7 lakh sacks of rotten wheat, lentil and sugar worth over Tk 7 crore from five warehouses at Roosevelt Jetty under Khalishpur thana, reports our staff correspondent.

Magistrate Atique Huq led the operation and sealed off the warehouses.

The warehouses belonged to Razzak Brothers, Baghdad Trading and BMK Traders. Magistrate Atique said former Awami League lawmaker Haji Selim owns Baghdad Traders while Haji Amin owns Razzak Brothers.

The joint forces also seized three trucks loaded with 600 sacks of TSP fertiliser and arrested the drivers of the trucks -- Yunus, Yusuf and Dulal.