Click to play videoDhaka (Bangladesh): On April 2, 2004 a jetty of the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited (CUFL) was where the biggest arms haul in Bangladesh's history took place.
Ten trucks were loaded with 2,000 assault rifles, including AK 47, AK 56, 150 T-69 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 27,000 grenades made by ARGES and 11,39,000 bullets.
Now, a CNN-IBN investigation has revealed that the arms were not destined for any Bangladeshi terror group. It was in fact coming for the Indian militant group, United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) whose commander-in-chief Paresh Barua had received the consignment at the Chittagong port.
CNN-IBN is in possession of documents that reveal the confession of the main accused, arms-smuggler Hafizur Rehman. The confession was even hidden from the courts, first by Khaleda Zia's government and then by the army.
Hafizur Rehman had told investigators about his first meeting with Paresh Barua in Dhaka's Dhanmundi area, and how the ULFA leader along with two accomplices personally offloaded the arms in Chittagong from a ship that came from Singapore.
Government sources in Dhaka have told CNN-IBN that this revelation is just the tip of the iceberg because investigators have already found links with former cabinet ministers of the BNP Jamaat-e-Islami government that ruled Bangladesh since 2001.
Sources in Dhaka and New Delhi suggest that Khaleda Zia's government put a lid on the investigation when it was clear that cabinet ministers of her government were involved.
According to Bangladeshi laws, no one can use the jetty of CUFL without direct instruction from the Industry Minister. Then Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rehman Nizami was the Industry Minister.
CNN-IBN has also learnt that Sheikh Hasina's government is planning to interrogate former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, former home minister Altaf Chowdhury, and former advisor to Khaleda Zia, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury with sufficient proof of their direct involvement – not only with the arms consignment and ULFA, but with Pakistani terror group, Lashker-e-Toiba, who have been blamed for the Mumbai attacks.
(With inputs from Samaresh Baidya)
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