They seized 10,400 sacks of urea at Bhairab upazila, reports our Kishoreganj correspondent.

Of those, 10,000 bags were seized from Bhuiyan Enterprise at Bhairab Bazar, Officer-in-Charge of Bhairab Police Station Zamir Uddin Ahmed said.

Bhairab upazila Awami League Vice-President Nadiruzzaman, also vice-president of fertiliser dealers' association of the district, owns the store.

Another 400 sacks of urea were recovered from his younger brother Monjil Bhuiyan's store in the same area.

Police sources said Liton, 25, and Raju, 26, both employees of the stores, were detained during the raid but the owners managed to escape the scene.

In the capital, the joint forces seized fake cement, fertiliser and potash from a warehouse at Mirpur and arrested its manager.

Acting on a tip-off, they raided a warehouse on 37 Mazar Road in Mirpur at around 4:30pm and found fake items including 654 sacks of cement, 111 sacks of fertiliser and 78 sacks of potash.

The law enforcers arrested Khaledur Rahman Milon, manager of the warehouse, but could not catch its owner Naziur Rahman Nazir.

Khulna sadar thana police yesterday seized 1,000 sacks of urea fertiliser and 545 sacks of spoilt basic commodities including fish feed, reports our staff correspondent in Khulna. Ghose & Brothers, a fertiliser dealer, hoarded the fertilisers on the ground floor of a three-storied building on 7 PC Roy Road. The owner of the dealership, Uma Prashad Ghose, could not be arrested.

Police took the owner of the building Deb Prashad Sheth in custody for his suspected involvement in the hoarding.

According to police, Uma Prasad Ghose is a listed smuggler and black marketeer.

The joint forces led by metropolitan Magistrate Atiqul Haque also seized huge quantities of spoilt basic commodities from a warehouse on Station Road.

The recovered spoilt food items are 150 sacks of rice, 136 sacks of sugar, 26 sacks of lentil and 233 sacks of fish feed.

The warehouse belonged to rice trader Elias Hossain -- proprietor of Madina Traders.

In Chittagong, members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) sealed off 16 large warehouses at Majhirghat under the Doublemooring thana, our staff correspondent reports.

However, Rab did not enter the warehouses as no magistrate was available yesterday.

It is believed that many top food importers of the country stockpiled huge quantities of basic commodities such as lentil, sugar, pulses, edible oil or other items in these warehouses.

Sources said three commissioned agents -- Kabir Majhi, Ahmed Trading and Ali Enterprise -- rented the warehouses a few years back to store various commodities imported by leading importers including PHP and Abul Khair groups.

UNB reports, police sealed off an unregistered food-processing factory in Natore after they found huge quantities of adulterated food items from the establishment.

Detective branch of police raided the factory named Uttara Foods and seized adulterated 'tasty saline', fruit juice, 'ready tea', sugar, and raw materials used in making the items.

In Sirajganj, residents of a village in Royganj upazila recovered 200 sacks of fertilisers from a pond on khas land, says UNB.

Police said fishermen netted the fertiliser sacks while fishing in Bangnai Dargahtala khas pond at noon. As the news spread, villagers rushed in and lifted the melted fertilisers from the pond.

Police suspect, panicked by the ongoing drives against hoarding of necessary commodities, the hoarders might have dumped the fertilisers into the pond.

Our Barisal correspondent reports, Kotwali police arrested two officials of Khan and Sons -- infamous for fertilisers hoarding.

The arrestees are Khan A Kuddus Shanu, manager of Khan and Sons' local office, and Rezaul Karim, sales manager of Khan Enterprises.

UNB from Jessore reports: Joint forces recovered 2,210 sacks of rotten wheat, 400 sacks of silicon and two firearms in the last 24 hours ending 8:00pm yesterday.

On information, they recovered 2,000 sacks of rotten wheat from 'Saudi Traders', 160 sacks from Nayem Store and 50 sacks from a godown at Prembag Bazar in Abhoynagar upazila.

Besides, 400 sacks of silicon were recovered while the chemical was being mixed with fertilizer at the Nayem Store.

In another drive, the forces recovered a pipe-gun and a sharp weapon and arrested a woman, Lila Begum, from Chandar village in Keshabpur upazila yesterday afternoon.

Three people--Musa, Manik and Tabibur--were arrested at Bagerpara Bazar Friday night.

Acting on their confessional statement, the law enforcers recovered a pistol, one bullet, two sharp weapons and four hand-made bombs from Naricalbaria village in Bagerpara upazila.

Separate cases were filed.