No gold looting takes place in Bangladesh Bank: Quader

Ruling Bangladesh Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader on Wednesday claimed that gold was not looted from Bangladesh Bank vault.

Also road transport and bridges minister, Quader criticised the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party for making comment on the issue “without proper information and proofs”.

"The opposition party has gone mad for getting issues [to cash in to do politics]. Without checking the veracity of the incident, the opposition commented that gold jewellery is looted from the Bangladesh Bank. But the fact is that no incident of gold looting took place,” said Quader while speaking at a meeting of the Roads and Highways sub-division on how to check traffic jam during the Eid-ul Azha.

Quader’s claim came a few hours after opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a human chain in the capital that the country's corruption level reached such a stage that the gold preserved in the vault of country’s central bank turns into mixed metal.

An investigation by the customs intelligence earlier revealed that gold weighing almost 1,000 kilograms kept in Bangladesh Bank's vault has been adulterated,

The 22-carat gold has turned into 18-carat gold as other metals were mixed with it after the central bank received gold discs and rings over a period of time, investigators believe.

The customs intelligence and investigation directorate of the National Board of Revenue dug out serious discrepancies in gold management, as the investigators examined 963 kg of gold out of huge quantity kept at the central bank's vault, on the basis of random sampling.

When his attention was drawn to the BNP's allegation that the ruling party launched a crude bomb attack on an election rally of the opposition party in Rajshahi, the ruling party general secretary denied the allegation, saying that the ruling party has no rationale to launch such an attack because, what he said, it is in a better position in the electoral race in Rajshahi as is in other cities.

“So, it doesn’t make sense that we’ll destroy election atmosphere by throwing crude bomb. Only those who fear defeat can launch such attack.”