VZCZCXRO6948
PP RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDBU RUEHLH RUEHNEH RUEHPW
DE RUEHKA #0541 1520319
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010319Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY DHAKA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8910
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON PRIORITY 2865
RHHJJPI/PACOM IDHS HONOLULU HI PRIORITY

UNCLAS DHAKA 000541 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER KCRM BG
SUBJECT: TWO FORMER INTELLIGENCE CHIEFS NABBED FOR ARMS SMUGGLING 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) Police have arrested two former National Security 
Intelligence (NSI) chiefs on allegations of involvement in an 
illegal shipment of weapons and ammunition in 2004 believed bound 
for an insurgent group in northeast India. At the time, the U.S. 
Government and others pushed for a thorough investigation into the 
shipment, to no avail. Now, the Awami League government is pursuing 
the case with great zeal and has indicated it may arrest senior 
officials from the previous Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) 
government. 
 
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SENSATIONAL CASE 
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¶2. (SBU) On May 16, police arrested two former NSI chiefs -- 
Brigadier General (retired) Abdur Rahim and Major General (retired) 
Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury -- from their Dhaka homes. Police 
immediately drove them to Chittagong for interrogation in connection 
with a five-year-old case involving the illegal shipment of several 
truckloads of weapons and ammunition. The 2004 shipment, which was 
foiled by Chittagong police, reportedly included more than a million 
bullets, 27,000 grenades and 150 rocket launchers, and may have been 
bound for the Indian insurgent group United Liberation Front of 
Assam (ULFA). The media criticized the then-BNP government for 
failing to find out where the shipment came from, where it was going 
and who paid for it. The government of the day also ignored repeated 
U.S. Government requests for a thorough investigation into the 
shipment. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The recent arrest of the former NSI chiefs followed 
allegations of their involvement reportedly made by Wing Commander 
(retired) Shahabuddin, a former NSI director for security who was 
arrested in the case himself on April 19. (Note: Rahim had been 
director general of NSI and Chowdhury had been a senior official at 
military intelligence, the Directorate General of Forces 
Intelligence, at the time police uncovered the arms shipment; 
Chowdhury later succeeded Rahim. End note.) Press reports also 
claimed Shahabuddin implicated Tarique Rahman, former Prime Minister 
Khaleda Zia's eldest son and a leading BNP organizer, and Matiur 
Rahman Nizami, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh's largest 
Islamist party, who was a cabinet member in the government of the 
day. State Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed indicated the 
Awami League government was looking into the possible involvement of 
former officials from the BNP-led government, but he did not name 
names. 
 
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BNP SAYS CASE IS A PARTISAN HATCHET JOB 
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¶4. (SBU) BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan told reporters the 
government was using the 2004 arms case to malign the opposition 
party. "If the (BNP-led) coalition government itself was involved in 
the smuggling of the weapons, then why would it spot the shipment 
and recover the weapons and institute an inquiry into the case?" he 
was quoted as saying. Some BNP supporters have argued the arrest of 
the two former NSI chiefs would affect the morale of intelligence 
agencies and expose the country to security threats. They claimed 
the Awami League government's reopening of the case was to curry 
favor with New Delhi by raising allegations that Khaleda Zia's 
government had supported insurgents in India's northeast. 
 
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COMMENT: CASE OPENS NEW FRONT IN TWO-PARTY WAR 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶5. (SBU) The reopening of the arms case is likely to continue the 
intense partisanship between the Awami League government and the 
opposition BNP. Whatever the legal merits of the arms case probe, it 
inevitably will be viewed here through the lens of Bangladesh's 
politics. That said, investigating possible involvement by security 
agencies and government figures into a massive, illegal arms 
shipment presumably intended to kill civilians in India is a long 
overdue step. 
 
MORIARTY