Sources quoting the Director-General of Police Bhupinder Singh said officials of the team would open the container cargo to ascertain the contents in order to match the list of the weapons in the container with that of the one disclosed by the security officials after interrogation of the ship’s captain.
The mystery deepened after the documents available with the captain reportedly showed that the sophisticated arms and ammunition consignment was addressed to a Pakistani Major Khali Khulla Khan. But the documents had no mention of Pakistan per se.
“The military cargo, including rocket launchers, smoke bombs and anti-aircraft guns, apart from other sophisticated arms and ammunition, was meant for a Karachi-based military officer in the rank of a major. But this was not mentioned in the documents,” Singh told newsmen here. A portion of these arms and ammunition was believed to have been used by the multi-nation troops in a UN peacekeeping mission.
What is more mystifying and has forced the defence authorities to detain the ship is the fact that the vessel had neither offloaded nor loaded any cargo at Chittagong port.
“We are awaiting a response from the UN officials. If any discrepancies are found, legal action will be taken against the owner of the ship and the crew members,” the chief added.
DGP explained that the ship was to have unloaded the military cargo at different ports with the “express purpose of returning the arms and ammunition contributed by the group of nations that participated in the UN Mission in Liberia that began in 2003 to contain the conflict arising out of the second Liberian civil war.
The vessel loaded the military cargo at Monrovia port in Liberia, started its journey on May 17 and sailed to Port Louis in Mauritius on June 4.
It unloaded a part of its military cargo first at St Louis and then at Cox’s Bazar port near Chittagong in Bangladesh,” Bhupinder Singh said after the security agencies quizzed the captain and the 19 crew members.It set sail for Kolkata dock to unload some military cargo that belongs to the Nepal Army, he added. All the security agencies concerned and the ministries of external affairs, defence and home were alerted after the interception of the ship.
DH News Service