Tk 50 cr uranium seized in city, 11 held

The Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in separate drives from Friday night to Sunday morning arrested 11 members of a uranium trading syndicate and seized Uranium-like object in the city.
If the seized uranium-like object is genuine one, then its value would be worth around Tk 50 crore in the city, intelligence sources said.
The arrested persons have been identified as Moynal Hossain Sagor, 45, Humayun Kabir, 48, Kaym Choudhury, 54, Kayesh Ahmed, 54, Abdul Khalek, 44, Swapan Molla, 45, Firoz Ali, 45, Mahfuzur Rahman Nasim, 42, Aslam Mia, 61, Moin Uddin Sarwar Rajon, 35, and Md Tofayel Ahmed Patwari, 48, police said.
A Dhaka court on Sunday granted a four-day police for questioning them. A case has been filled with Banani Police Station in this connection. Magistrate Anwar Sadat passed the remand order on the day, court sources said.
Meanwhile, DMP deputy commissioner (media and public relations) Masudur Rahman told reporters yesterday that the DB personnel had conducted simultaneous drives following a secret information in different parts of the city, including Dhanmondi, Uttara and Banani, from Friday night to Sunday morning and arrested them along with the uranium.
The law enforcers seized a box with a tag written Uranium’ on it at the residence of one of the detainees at Banani. The substance found from the box would be tested by experts to confirm whether it is uranium, the DC said.
The DMP spokesman said that along with the box there are many types of equipment, such as a radiation meter, gas mask, temperature meter, radiation resistant jacket, hand gloves and catalogues written in English and Russian Languages.
The arrested persons said they collected the box from outside Dhaka. The box has been imported into the country through special means from abroad, Masud said.
“Those detainees claim it to be uranium. They have been looking for a buyer for the last six months for it. We will send it to the Atomic Energy Commission to find out whether it is uranium,” said the DMP official.
Uranium, a very heavy metal used for initiating a nuclear fission to create atomic energy, helps in generating power or for producing nuclear weapons.
Bangladesh has no known sources of uranium, but close to its borders in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, there exist a huge deposit of high quality uranium, the DC said.
It was discovered in the early 1990s at Domiosiat-Wakkhaji region, but fierce tribal resistance had thwarted Indian plans to mine it, DMP sources said.
Earlier in 2001, two Bangladesh nationals were arrested along with some locals in Meghalaya and charged with theft of raw uranium ore, they added.