A Chittagong court has observed that the role of the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia over the sensational 10-truck arms haul was “mysterious.”
The court said this in its full verdict in the arms haul case.
It said that the then Director General of the DGFI Major General (retd) Sadik Hasan Rumi phoned to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia about the arms haul, but she did not express any reaction except saying that she had been informed.
The silent role of the then prime minister is mysterious despite the gravity of the incident, it added.
Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge and Special Tribunal-1 released the full verdict of the 10-truck arms haul on Tuesday afternoon.
It also said that the smuggling was carried out in order to strengthen Indian separatist organisation United National Liberation Front (ULFA).
On January 30, the court sentenced 14 people including two former ministers namely Matiur Rahman Nizami and Lutfuzzaman Babar and ULFA leader Paresh Barua to death in the arms smuggling case of the 10-truck arms haul.
The convicts in the cases also ignored about the reputation of the defence of our country, the court observed.
Some disgruntled army officials disgraced our foreign policy by being involved with the incident.
“The incident occurred at a time when Lutfuzzaman Babar was the State Minister for Home and Motiur Rahman Nizami was the Industries Minister of the then BNP-led four-party alliance government. Babar wanted to hide the incident,” it added.
The reaction among some lawyers was that such observation by a judge without evidence is most unusual for the judicial propriety. There was scope for seeing the case as smuggling at the lower level as because the case was detected during the time when BNP was in power.
