Two rice-laden trucks seized, five arrested in Chittagong

Members of the joint forces yesterday seized two trucks laden with government relief rice and arrested four employees of a rice godown and a truck driver at Chaktai, one of the commercial hubs in Chittagong.
The rice-laden trucks were being sent to Dighinala upazila in Khagrachhari as relief for distribution among the hilly people, sources said.
Identity of four arrestees out of five could be ascertained till filing of this report at 8.45pm yesterday. They are Kamal Uddin, Babul Chowdhury and Jalal Uddin, employees of one Musa Sowdagar's godown at New Chaktai, and truck driver Mofizur Rahman.
On information, a team of joint forces rushed to the spot at around 8.00pm and seized the trucks loaded with 201 sacks of rice and arrested the five from there. The owner of the godown, however, fled the scene.
Assistant Commissioner (detective branch) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police Naimul Hasan admitted the seizure and arrests, but he could not give details of the rice.
Another source, however, said the rice in question was part of over 400 metric tonnes of rice the joint forces team seized on April 24 from the dumping yard of Chittagong City Corporation, while a large quantity of rice in good condition was being dumped there as 'inedible'.
The government of Pakistan in December 2007 donated the rice as food aid for Sidr victims. A total of around 2,500 metric tonnes of rice in 110 containers were donated. Of them, 25 containers of rice, weighing around 451 metric tonnes, were found wet and reported to be giving out bad odour. The authorities then decided to dump the 25 affected containers, declaring the rice 'inedible'.