The Bangladeshi government Tuesday announced a top-level inquiry led by the home secretary to probe the discovery of the South Asian nation's biggest-ever illegal arms cache.
The probe was launched amid media speculation that the haul seized Friday in the south-eastern port city of Chittagong, which contained hundreds of rockets and launchers, was destined for separatists in India's north-east Assam state.
A six-member inquiry committee led by Home Secretary Omar Faruk would ensure a "vigorous investigation... to unravel the mystery behind the arms shipment," the official BSS news agency said, quoting a home ministry statement.
"The government has already constituted a high-powered inquiry committee headed by the Home Secretary to investigate the recovery of [the] ... illegal arms and ammunition," the statement said.
Some media had suggested the arms were headed for the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), whose two-decade-old battle for independence in Assam, which borders Bangladesh, has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
But the government refused to answer speculation about the shipment, that according to a police list included 300 rocket launchers, 840 rockets, 2,000 rocket launching tubes, 25,000 hand grenades and 1,790 sophisticated guns such as sub-machine guns and semi-automatic sporting rifles.
Earlier, state minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar said the weapons, found after a tip-off hidden beneath bags of salt and rice in ten trucks, were intended to carry out "subversive activity" in Bangladesh and posed "a threat to national security".
Police said they believed international weapons smugglers had transported the weapons by sea before smuggling them ashore at Chittagong, 208 kilometres (130 miles) south-east of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
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