None other than the licensed sellers have been supplying the militant outfits and political saboteurs with explosive making materials to earn some easy bucks, detectives have found.
They got such sensational information while interrogating the four people, including a Dhaka University lab assistant, arrested recently on charges of selling explosives to the members of militant outfits.
“In the past, we have seized large quantities of explosives from militants and people who carried out sabotages during political violences. But we could not trace the sources,” said Sanowar Hossain, additional deputy commissioner of police’s Detective Branch (DB).
“Now that we have arrested these four, we hope to get hold of everyone else who sell explosives to militants and criminals,” said Sanwar, who is also the chief of DB’s bomb disposal unit.
He also said that these greedy businessmen could be supplying the explosives making substances either for making profit or because they believe in the ideology of the militant outfits.
Early Friday night, detectives arrested Gazi Mohammad Babul, lab assistant at the soil science department of DU; Ripon Mollah and Nasir Uddin, owners of two chemical shops; and Mohiuddin, manager of another chemical shop.
Contacted, DB chief Monirul Islam told the Dhaka Tribune, yesterday that all the arrestees had claimed during interrogation that their motive was making profit and had no involvement with those who bought the materials from them.
“However, we are checking whether they have sold explosives to any other groups such as Huji-B or Ansarullah Bangla Team,” Monirul said.
According to the Bangladesh Scientific Instrument Dealers Association (BSIDA), there are 350 authorised chemical shops in Bangladesh who import these substances and are supposed to sell them to authorised organisations such as science laboratories of educational institutions.
Detectives say that these shops needs to have trade, narcotics and explosive licenses and Home Ministry clearance. However, most of the shops do not have all these licenses.
DB’s bomb disposal expert Sanowar Hossain said that there no no monitoring of such business activities, what they are doing and who they are selling these substances to.
“As these shops themselves do not have proper permits, they do not ask for proper authorisation of the buyers either,” he said.
“We have already talked to the BSIDA about monitoring and taking action against the shops that do not have proper permits,” Sanowar added.
Contacted, Moazzem Hossain Sazu, president of BSIDA, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday: “We have taken the issue seriously after the arrest of the shop owners involved with selling explosives.”
He however said it was not true that most chemical shops do not have licenses.
“If any shops sell explosive materials that are not harmful for humans, it only needs to have a trade license. Similarly, the shops that sell acid only needs to have a acid selling license and those selling narcotics items only need to have the relevant permit.
“However, we are going to have a meeting with the FBCCI tomorrow [Sunday] and we will make a decision in this regard” he said.