BANGLADESH NEWS
Former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar had ordered the CID to submit the charge sheets in the 10-truck arms haul cases without implicating NSI officials, ex-DIG of CID Farrukh Ahmad told a Chittagong court yesterday.
“According to the order of Lutfozzaman Babar and with consent from former home secretary Omar Faruq, the charge sheets were submitted without disclosing the involvement of NSI officials in the smuggling of arms and ammunition,” Farrukh said in his deposition as a prosecution witness in two cases in this connection.
Farrukh also implicated several former National Security Intelligence (NSI) officials including its former director general Brig Gen (retd) Abdur Rahim, deputy director Major (retd) Liakat Hossain and field officer Akbar Hossain and former director of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) Brig Gen (retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury in the offence.
Law enforcers seized 10 truckloads of arms and explosive at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited in the wee hours of April 2 in 2004.
The following day, a five-member enquiry committee was formed led by Omar Faruq, said the former deputy inspector general (DIG) of Criminal investigation Department (CID) adding, he was made one of the members of the committee.
The committee members arrived in Chittagong on April 5 to start the investigation and left for Dhaka on April 8.
A few days later, CID (Chittagong) ASP Kabir, who was the investigation officer (IO) of the cases, had informed Farrukh that he found the involvement of NSI field officer Akbar Hossain and a smuggler Hafizur Rahman in hiring the 10 trucks for transporting the arms and ammunition.
Farrukh had ordered Kabir to interrogate the two, but Kabir failed to grill them as Hafizur remained absconding and the Chittagong office of NSI did not cooperate with the IO for producing its field officer before the CID.
The ex-DIG of CID told Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 that when he informed state minister Babar about NSI's non-cooperation with the CID, the latter said, “There are many things where national interests are involved. So we have to work meticulously.”
“Giving reference to a previous arms haul, Babar told me that a trawler loaded with arms was seized in Cox's Bazar in 1996, but no case was filed then,” said Farrukh.
The court adjourned the trial proceedings till tomorrow after a defence lawyer started cross examination of Farrukh.
Earlier, the defence lawyers completed cross examination of another prosecution witness Shamsul Islam, former DIG of Special Branch.
Lawyers of four accused Akbar Hossain, Din Mohammad, Hafizur Rahman and Haji Sobhan cross-examined Shamsul.
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