BNP, Tarique behind ULFA weapon scam, says ex-Indian army sleuth

A senior former Indian military intelligence official has said Bangladesh’s BNP and its ally Jamaat-e-Islami operated a clandestine process in supplying weapons to their separatist ULFA and other such outfits with Tarique Rahman being a central figure in the scam, reports BSS.

Former deputy director general of India's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) major general Gaganjit Singh in an exclusive interview with India Today visibly supplementing a recent comment by United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia about the weapon smuggling to the region through Bangladesh soil.

Bangladesh police in Chattogram incidentally seized 10 truckloads of weapons destined to Assam region in 2004 while both the former intelligence official and the ULFA leader said the arms were destined to other rebel outfits as well alongside ULFA.

“The arms were being supplied by taking advantage of the BNP-Jamaat alliance to use Bangladesh as a sanctuary,” India Today reported quoting Singh as saying.

The former Indian general who served as the senior DIA official said ULFA Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua was the mastermind of the plot to secure weapons for intensifying separatist movement in Assam.

“But he (Paresh Barua) was operating in close coordination with (Bangladesh’s) DGFI and some NSI officials who had close links with Tareque Rahman (BNP’s current acting chairman) and his cronies in what was then referred to as Hawa Bhaban (political office of BNP),” Singh said.

He added the arms were being supplied by taking advantage of the BNP-Jamaat alliance to use Bangladesh as a sanctuary.

The 10 truckloads of weapons was seized in April 2004 despite suspected efforts of certain "influential quarters" for its safe passage to ULFA hideouts in northeastern India through Chittagong, but the case was shelved for years after the apparently "accidental" seizure during the past BNP-led four-party rightwing government with Jamaat being its crucial ally.

The subsequent military-backed interim government in 2008 ordered the re-investigation 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.

A special tribunal in the northeastern port city of Chattogram on January 30 handed down death penalty to 14 people including two former ministers of the past BNP government, two ex-army generals and ULFA leader Paresh Barua nearly a decade after the “accidental” seizure of 10-truck loads of weapons.

The two politicians to get the capital punishment are former junior minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and Jamaat chief and former industries minister in the same cabinet Matiur Rahman Nizami while ULFA’s fugitive military wing chief Paresh Barua was one of the convicts to be awarded the death penalty in absentia.

The two former generals are the then director general of the apex National Security Intelligence (NSI) ex-brigadier general Abdur Rahim and former director of Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) ex-major general Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury, who later also became the NSI chief.

“It is mysterious that the then head of the government was silent when she was notified, and did not react sternly to such a huge event,” Judge SM Mojibur Rahman observed in his verdict.

He also observed that such large-scale weapon trafficking was only possible because Barua was patronized by Bangladesh’s intelligence personnel and because they enjoyed support of the government.