Bravery got 'em into big trouble

The transfer of arms and ammo into 10 trucks from the trawlers at the CUFL jetty on the night of April 1, 2004, was going smooth until two police sergeants showed up.
The two whistleblowers who made possible the largest arms haul in Bangladesh's history did not even receive a pat on the back.
Rather, sergeants Md Alauddin, then in-charge of Bandar police outpost, and Md Helal Uddin Bhuiyan, then in-charge of Koiler Depot police outpost, faced brutal torture.
They were implicated in a false arms case (from which they were later acquitted) and sent to jail after being suspended. It wasn't until 2011 they got their jobs back.   
Alauddin and Helal say that they would not have had to deal with the trauma and suffer in jail for two years had they not detected the smuggling.
Receiving information on the unloading of illegal goods at the jetty, Alauddin went to Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd jetty that night with a habildar and at first they found no owner of the goods.
Alauddin informed Chittagong Metropolitan Police officials of the matter and Helal was sent. Helal reached the spot on a boat crossing the Karnaphuli before midnight.
After Helal went there, Hafizur Rahman, an accused in the cases, and another person identifying himself as United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) leader Abul Hossain approached the two policemen and said the goods were actually arms and ammo for Ulfa and they were being offloaded there with permission from all government agencies concerned.
This left Alauddin and Helal baffled.
Alauddin, now posted at the Special Protection Battalion of Bangladesh police in Prime Minister's Office, said, “They threatened us with getting fired from our jobs unless we left.”
The two policemen were buying none of that. They called CMP and a huge contingent of police captured the consignment of arms.
However, the two sergeants had to endure untold sufferings within a year.
Alauddin while on duty in Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic department was taken by Rab officials to Rab headquarters in Uttara on the evening of August 18, 2005.
Helal, who was on duty at Sadarghat police box in Dhaka, was called to the DMP Detective Branch office the following afternoon and from there Rab officials took him to the Rab headquarters.
Rab officials including Lt Col Gulzar quizzed them about the arms haul.
The next morning, the two were taken to Rab-7 headquarters in Chittagong and then to the office of then Rab-7 chief Lt Col Emdad.
As soon as they reached the chief's room, Emdad asked who Helal was and when Helal introduced himself, the Rab chief slapped him so hard that he fell to the floor.
Emdad then started beating him up with a stick wrapped with wires.
“My left leg was broken,” said Helal, adding that Emdad beat up Alauddin too.
Helal told The Daily Star that Emdad kept asking them why they had busted the arms smuggling and why they had stolen two firearms from the consignment.
When the Rab official threatened Helal with having him killed in crossfire, Helal asked what he had done wrong.
Emdad blamed him for the country's condition then.
The two were later taken to Sudharam Police Station in Noakhali and were shown arrested in an arms case filed with the station on August 19, 2005.
While talking to The Daily Star, Helal, from Comilla, said his family, especially his mother, was devastated when he was arrested in the arms case. “I was treated as a thief in my village,” said Helal.
They were suspended, placed on seven days' remand each, sent to jail and were behind bars until November, 2007.
From jail, the two policemen in a prison van were taken to a Chittagong court in May, 2006 to testify in the 10-truck arms haul cases. The irony of fate was that they were sharing the van with Hafizur, whom they had met on the CUFL jetty.
Alauddin said, “In the prison van, Hafizur told me not to disclose his name in my deposition. He also told me that he would get out of jail soon.”
In November 2007, the two suspended policemen got bail and when reinvestigation began in the 10-truck arms haul cases and the real culprits were being questioned, the two policemen found hope.
The two were able to prove their innocence and get acquitted in the arms case against them, Alauddin said, adding that after National Security Intelligence Deputy Director Maj Liakat was arrested, they recognised him.
Maj Liakat was the one who had claimed to be Ulfa      leader Abul Hossain at the CUFL jetty.
Both of them identified Maj Liakat in a test identification parade in Chittagong jail in June, 2009.
Alauddin got his job back and joined in CMP traffic in August 2011. After getting promoted to inspector, he was appointed to the Special Protection Battalion at the Prime Minister's Office on January 12, 2013.
After being suspended for over three years, Helal too joined the CMP traffic in 2011.
Both of them, however, are proud of the fact that they had a hand in the busting of the arms smuggling.
The report is based on confessional statements, depositions, charges, verdicts, first information reports and interviews with Alauddin and   Helal.