Terming the seizures 'harassment of traders', they announced the plan to enforce the indefinite strike at a press conference held in the city yesterday noon.

They claimed that BDR men were seizing 'legally imported goods' from outside their territory of eight kilometers from the border with a view to harassing the traders since April last.

"Protesting the harassment, we called an indefinite strike from May 14 forcing the Rajshahi divisional anti-smuggling task force to sit in a meeting and take some decisions to stop harassment of traders", said Lutfar Rahman, president of Sona Mosque Importers and Exporters' Group.

But violating the decisions, the BDR continued to take trucks to their camps in the name of checking and in most cases the trucks were released after 'partial unloading' which caused financial loss to the traders, he said.

"The BDR forcibly seized a truck carrying 20 tonnes of ship scraps worth about US $14,000 from the customs godown on June 15 night. It was part of the 'plan' to paralyse the port," Lutfar alleged while reading out a written statement.

Chapainawabganj chamber president Abdul Wahed and Rajshahi chamber general secretary Abu Taleb also spoke at the press conference.

Regional Customs Commissioner Ali Ahmed claimed that the BDR was not authorised to seize anything from the customs checkpoint. He said, "The BDR men seized the truck at gunpoint."

Lieutenant Colonel Shahid Uddin Khan of Chapainawabganj BDR denied the allegations and said the truck was carrying gun-manufac-turing metals worth about Tk 2 crore for smuggling across the border when it was caught (unclaimed) near the zero line.

" The traders could go to court if our action was illegal, but they are not going to do that," Khan told The Daily Star.