Khalida's son involved in arms haul, suspect claims

Dhaka: The prime accused in Bangladesh's biggest arms haul, Hafizur Rahman, has alleged that ex-prime minister Khalida Zia's son Tariq Rahman was involved in the weapons smuggling. The arms were believed to be destined to go to Indian separatist hideouts in Assam.

"Hafizur Rahman has told the magistrate that he had met Tariq Rahman at Hawa Bhaban along with United Liberation Front of Asom [Ufla] leader Paresh Barua on April 1, 2004," the state-run BSS news agency quoted a senior police official as saying last night.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hafizur Rahman also named several other stalwarts of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led four-party alliance government, including both administrative and intelligence officials.

Hafiz's 43-page statement came after he was interrogated in custody for three days. He told the magistrate that he escorted Barua to the Hawa Bhaban days ahead of the offload of the secret weapons consignment.

"Paresh Barua entered into the Hawa Bhaban leaving me outside at the entrance and had a meeting with Tarique Rahman," the official quoted the statement as saying.

Tariq Rahman — who is now also the senior vice-chairman of BNP — faces a number of graft and criminal cases.

The officer investigating the cases, Mohammad Moniruzzaman of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), said yesterday that the latest statement by Hafiz seemed to be a "major development" in the investigation process since a reinvestigation into the scam was ordered two years ago.

Consignment

But officials familiar with the statement said Hafiz however, did not disclose the source of the weapon consignment during his interrogation at the CID headquarters in Dhaka and that most of the time he repeated information confessed during earlier remands in custody.

The consignment of 10 truckloads of weapons was seized despite suspected efforts from influential quarters to ensure its safe passage through Bangladesh's southeastern port city. But the case was shelved for years after the apparently "accidental" seizure.

The past military-backed interim government two years ago ordered the reinvestigation amid allegations that there was a deliberate attempt on the part of the then administration under the BNP-led government to suppress facts to weaken the case.