Staff Correspondent :
A joint task force has seized a large quantity of looted white mineral stone from Bholaganj, Sylhet, at Shukursi Ghat on the banks of the Shitalakkhya River in Sarulia Union under Demra Police Station in Dhaka. The raid began on Thursday (14 August) evening, led by Narayanganj District Administration, the Department of Environment, and RAB-11. No arrests were made.
At a press briefing at 9:30 p.m., RAB-11 Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel H. M. Sajjad Hossain confirmed the operation. He stated that acting on RAB intelligence, they learned that looted white stone from Sylhet had been transported to Shukursi Ghat, north of the Kanchpur Bridge, by both road and river routes. When the raid was conducted, the local stone traders fled.
Authorities found two trucks at the stone-crushing site being loaded and unloaded with the white stone. As the stones were mixed with “selection sand,” suspicions were raised, prompting a search of several nearby stone depots.
The search uncovered white stones stored at Huzaifa Enterprise, Allaher Dan Stone Crusher, Madbor Traders-2, Mannan Bhuiyan Enterprise, Alif Builders, Messrs Bhuiyan Traders, and Farazi & Brothers. The owners and workers of these businesses had fled, and it is suspected the stones originated from the Sylhet looting. Several trucks and large piles of stone were seized.
The RAB commander said the exact amount of seized stone could not be determined immediately, but the initial estimate is around 40,000 cubic feet. The final measurement will be made after the operation concludes.
Present at the raid were RAB-11 Senior ASP Golam Morshed, Keraniganj South Assistant Commissioner (Land) Abdullah Al Mamun, Department of Environment Assistant Director Hossain Shuvo Monju, and a large contingent of RAB-11 personnel.
