Police also seized 130 sacks of adulterated powdered chilli and a huge quantity of chemical dyes and husk from three spice grinding shops at Khatunganj in the port city yesterday.

The security personnel made the huge recovery busting nine warehouses including seven belonging to Jilani Enterprise at Majhirghat of Sadarghat under the city's Double Mooring thana.

During the drive that started at around 3:00pm, the army recovered 1.5 lakh sacks of TSP, 75 thousand sacks of FMT, 75 thousand sacks of MOP, 150 sacks of Urea fertiliser and 1.5 lakh sacks of damaged fertilisers, kept possibly for mixing with the good ones.

Thirty five thousand sacks of soda and 10 thousand sacks of poultry feeds were also among the recovered items.

The army arrested Jilani Enterprise employees Md Noor Hossain, and Asim Das, 26, -- both hailing from Patuakhali, for their involvement in the hoarding and adulteration.

Acting on the confession of shop owner Abdul Matin and his employee Zia who were arrested on Thursday night, Kotoali police in Chittagong made an anti-adulteration drive at Nabi Market of Khatunganj in the port city yesterday.

They recovered 130 sacks of adulterated powdered chilli, a huge quantity of chemical dyes and husk to be used in adulteration from three shops belonging to Matin, Swapan and Hanif at around 10:00am.

Swapan and Hanif, however, managed to escape arrest.

The army and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in separate drives on Thursday seized over 1.50 lakh sacks of TSP and Urea, and arrested two persons from four warehouses of the same area along the northern bank of Karnaphuli river.

UNB from Munshiganj adds: the joint forces yesterday seized about 2 lakh sacks of adulterated cement from a cement factory at Tentuitala in Gazaria upazila.

During the drive, they also arrested 10 employees of the factory.

The joint forces raided Anwar Cement Factory in the evening while the employees were mixing white powder with cement.

Our Nilphamari correspondent reports: The joint forces on Thursday night seized about 15,000 bags of adulterated NPKS (nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulfate combine) fertiliser from a clandestine fertiliser factory at Saidpur town.

A group of joint forces including Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) based in Rangpur raided a jute go-down at Naya Bazar area of Saidpur town Thursday night at 8:45pm, police and eyewitnesses said. They recovered about 15,000 bags of adulterated NPKS fertiliser from there.

The law enforcers also seized huge amount of black coloured soil, burnt engine oil, dolomite, phosphate and cement turned bad, brick dust and a brick breaking machine -- things used for making adulterated NPKS fertiliser.

Sekendar Ali Shah, a BCIC dealer, is the owner of the fertiliser trading firm Rustom and Sons' on Dinajpur road in Saidpur town. A few years back, he hired a big jute go-down at deserted Tulsi Ram Road at Naya Bazar of the town and turned it into a 'secret' adulterated fertiliser production centre, police said.

Sekender sold the adulterated fertiliser in the rural haats and bazars at high prices through his own network.

Strangers would come to the so-called go-down where the main gate remained closed most of the time, locals said.

Sekendar Ali and his employees managed to escape while the joint forces arrested Sekendar's brother Ruhul Amin who was being interrogated at the office of Rab-5.

A large amount of adulterated fertiliser is allegedly supplied to the eight other districts of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur. Last year also, two adulterated fertiliser factories were unearthed.

The joint forces including the Rab yesterday seized 200 sacks of substandard urea and TSP fertilisers and 252 sacks of rotten lentil from a warehouse of Baghdad Trading at Station Road under Khulna Sadar thana, our staff correspondent from Khulna says.

Former Awami League lawmaker Haji Selim owns Baghdad Trading.

The joint forces on Thursday night seized about 15,000 bags of adulterated NPKS (nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulfate combine) fertiliser from a factory producing spurious fertiliser at Saidpur town.

BSS adds: Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) seized 32 litres of diesel about to be smuggled through Roghunathpur border under Panka union of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj district on Thursday.

As the BDR jawans fired shots to stop the smugglers at 3:00pm, the criminals fled leaving the diesel, BDR sources said.