Investigation into the case moves at a snail's pace and the drive to nab them has slowed down due to mysterious reasons, sources said.

Police and other agencies have failed to track down the masterminds and the trainers although three months have elapsed since the raid of the clandestine arms training centre at the remote hilly area of Hathazari, 15 miles off the city.

Acting on a tip-off, police busted the militant camp on June 1 this year and seized 24 dummy Ak-47 rifles, tents, spears, binoculars and other equipment.

They arrested Md. Iskander and Enamul Huq during the raid while others managed to escape.

Iskander and Enamul were arrested on suspicious links with Harkatul Jihad, an Islamist outfit that patronised the training centre.

After quizzing, the two arrestees told the police that Mir Anis, Ahmed Hossain alias Kaderi Huzur and Habibullah, local madrasa teachers, were the masterminds.

Mir Anis, teacher of Hathazari Women's Madrasa, is the cousin of a state minister from Chittagong. Mir Anis and others have gone into hiding to avoid arrest after busting of the training centre.

Initially, police launched massive manhunt for the masterminds and raided different places in the city and Hathazari upazila. Police raided Patiya Madrasa in vain to arrest Mir Anis and others.

But the manhunt gradually slowed down for reasons unknown with the passage of time, sources said.

Police officials said that we launch raid now on receipt of any secret information about the whereabouts of the masterminds and trainers.

Mahbubur Rahman, Superintendent of Police Chittagong, said that the investigation into the case of militant camp of Hathazari was going on. He said that a letter was sent to the higher authority recently for disposal of the case as it was matter of anti-state crime.

Before framing charges of anti-state crime, police need permission from the ministry concerned, he said.

In the mean time, police seized the furniture and other household goods of Mir Anis from his residence on the Hathazari Women's Madrasa campus following a court order of attachment of his movable properties.

Police also seized the household goods of Kaderi Huzur and Habibullah from their Hathazari residences.

Police sought the court order to attach the property of the accused as they could not arrest the masterminds after three months of the busting of the militants' camp.

Sources said, police were slow to implement the attachment order issued first week of August.

In a separate raid at Rangunia hilly area, 30 miles off the city, police busted another training camp of Islamist militants and arrested one person identified as Md Tushar, the same day.

But police could neither make any headway in the probe nor identify the masterminds of the camp.

Two cases were filed with Hathazari and Rangunia police stations after quizzing the arrestees on charge of anti-state activities.