Bangladesh smugglers dodge police

By Moazzem Hossain
BBC correspondent in Dhaka

Police and other security agencies in Bangladesh have launched a massive hunt for suspected arms smugglers.

The smugglers are thought to have brought huge caches of bullets and explosives into the country.

In a remote village in the northern district of Bogra, police recovered more than 100,000 bullets and 150 kilograms (130 pounds) of explosives hidden in a truck and nearby ponds and bushes.

The authorities have so far failed to make any significant breakthrough in the case.

Police and paramilitary troops are continuing their search for more ammunition, believed to be hidden in ponds and canals in the village of Jogarpara in Bogra, about 150 kilometres (100 miles) from Dhaka.

On Wednesday morning, police recovered another 11,000 bullets from the same village, where an ammunition-laden truck was discovered by villagers on Friday night.

Rabid Has an, the officer who led the operation to seize the truck, said the bullets and explosives were neatly packed in canvas and plastic bags and were hidden under piles of pineapples.

Villagers started looting the truck after smugglers abandoned it near a brick kiln on the outskirt of the village.

Vital Clue

"People thought there were valuable items in the bags. But when they found that there were bullets and explosives inside, they threw them in ponds and bushes fearing police action," Rabid Has an said.

The pineapples proved to be vital for police officials investigating the case, as it gave them a clue as to where truck started its journey.

It is thought the arms came from the troubled border region

Chittagong Hill Tracts in the south-east and Sleet in the north-east are Bangladesh's two main pineapple-growing regions.

Both regions have a common border with north-eastern Indian states troubled with insurgency.

This led the investigation officials to believe that the ammunition was smuggled from north-eastern India.

On Tuesday security forces raided a frontier village in Habitant, close to the Indian state of Tripura, and arrested two Indian nationals.

The two were being interrogated by a group of senior security officials.

The first suspect arrested in the arms smuggling case was the wife of a village leader of the opposition Awami League party.

Police officials said they recovered part of the ammunition cache from the backyard of her thatched house in Bogra.

Following the arrest the government immediately blamed the opposition, and Prime Minister Khalid Zima accused the Awami League of trying to destabilise her government.

Opposition leader Sheikh Hasina sharply reacted to the accusations, and blamed the government for plotting the whole arms smuggling episode.