In a string of busts since the night of June 27, police and BDR men seized 93,192 bullets and 180kg explosives, which a group of villagers stashed in ditches and ponds after pilfering them from an abandoned truck.

Police found the villagers too poor to manage their daily meals and their mud houses almost empty. "The villagers have no chairs to give our forces to sit on," said a policeman, deployed in the Jogarpara village after the biggest ever haul in Bangladesh.

Kahalu police got nothing but a few tumbledown tin-sheds, when they came to the village to attach the property of local Awami League leader Sayed Akhlakur Rahman Pintu, accused of involvement in the incident.

Pintu was dependent on his wife, who rears a cow and works as a maid, said Kahalu police.

The economic condition of BNP worker Abdul Zabbar, also accused in the same case, is not well either: eking out a living by raising hens.

Like other villagers, Pintu did not know the bags beneath piles of pineapples on the truck were full of bullets and explosives, locals said.

Samed, a rickshaw van-puller, told The Daily Star that Pintu asked him to carry some 'Indian goods' to his house.

But Jalal, cousin of Pintu, who was primarily found involved with the cache, rented Pintu's house at Tk 20,000 a month and lied to him that the bags were carrying 'Indian motor parts'. Pintu was also given Tk 5,000 in advance.

Mozam Mondol, a labourer who first unearthed the cache, said that when he wanted to see what the truck had inside, one of the two unknown persons beside the vehicle said, "There are bullets". With the mention of bullets, Pintu fled and Altaf, who accompanied Mondol, called in police.

Meantime, Mozam chased the two unidentified men away and locals looted the bags from the truck in hopes that the loots would fetch some money. Police rushed in and asked the villagers to toss the looted bags into nearby ditches. The villagers obliged.

Pintu's wife Anwara Begum Bithi, his elder brother and Krishi Bank official Ruhul Amin Mintu and Abdul Zabbar's wife Rawshan Ara -- arrested in connection with the cache -- were all 'victims of circumstances', said police.

Kahalu police said the senior officers in Dhaka are dealing with the case and the main suspects Jogesh Dev Barman and Jalal are being quizzed by an interrogation cell taskforce.

The local investigators said Jalal divulged important information, but remained tight-lipped about Jogesh Dev, pivotal in finding leads to the smuggling bid.

Jalal is a local middleman of smugglers and was tasked with ensuring a safe way for the truck to Dhamuirhat border in Naogaon through Bogra.

The truck was driven to Kahalu from Habiganj, stacked with ammunition and explosives -- believed to be smuggled into Bangladesh for shipment to another country, police quoted Jalal as saying during interrogation.

But the truck reached Bogra on June 27 and Jalal decided to stockpile some munitions at Pintu's house because of hartal next day and duped the poor man with Tk 20,000.

The police and BDR joint drives could not recover any bullets yesterday, but the tarpaulin covering the truck was retrieved from a river. Police are still mounting guard in the village and many innocent men fled home for fear of harassment.

Meanwhile, a delegation of AL lawmakers led by Deputy Leader of the Opposition Abdul Hamid reached Bogra yesterday to probe the haul. The team, including Faruk Khan and Motahar Hossain will visit the place of occurrence in Kahalu today.

"It's a secret plan of the government to persecute our men and shift the blame for smuggling of ammunition onto the opposition," Hamid said denying the allegation against his party men of involvement in the smuggling bid.