The police intelligent network has virtually congealed into dysfunction because of unaccountability of the fund used on informers.

"There is no auditing and no limit to the fund," one of them said.

An accidental gunshot on Sunday led a plucky mobile police team to the arms cache in Badda that included four Ak-47 assault rifles, two revolvers, 20 hand grenades, four time bombs, a huge number of Ak-47 bullets and explosives.

The weapons were smuggled into Dhaka from across the borders on land route raising the hackles of people who wonder how they could dodge so many security rings.

There was no intelligence in such an unprecedented haul after a firefight. "Had there been any intelligence, the police casualty could have been skipped," a home ministry official said yesterday.

By contrast, the army made a similar seizure in Khagrachhari acting on intelligence only two days before the Eid-ul-Fitr on November 23.

Earlier this year, sheer luck of police led them to the source of country's biggest ammo cache in Bogra. Angry villagers drew their attention of police to an abandoned truck that hid about 100,000 bullets and 200 kilos of explosives under a pile of pineapples.

Fortune also triumphed in the recovery of a bomb from Kotalipara three years ago when a tea boy saw a wire protruding from the ground.

"There are reports of abuse of police source fund," an official of the home ministry admitted.

In many cases, informants play dual roles, as they do not always get their full payment. They often leak police plans to criminals in exchange of money.

Such roles lead to the loss of life and public property. Two officers of the DB were gunned down at a hotel at Malibagh Chowdhurypara as their source misguided them.

The police-informer relationship is also characterised by dark shadows.

"The police are involved in some regular but unreported crimes. Based on our tip-off, police seize illegal or smuggled goods and share only a small part of the goods with us," an informer told The Daily Star.

"When we demand the just share of the goods, they often threaten us with arrest or other humiliation," he added.

Jalal Ahmed Shafi, a Detective Branch informant was murdered and his body was dumped in an overhead water reservoir on the roof of the DB office on Mintoo Road, as he demand his source money, he alleged.

"The DB has never resolved the case because it will expose the crimes of high police echelons," he said.

In many cases, lives of police informants become vulnerable as police fail to protect them from criminals. This is another reason why informants do not always give vital information, sources said.

Police intelligence agents are also accused of taking bribes from leading criminals and working perfunctorily.

The arrests of Nurul Absar from Chittagong and Absar Ali, a mason from Badda in Dhaka, were examples of mangled intelligence.

The agents branded them as members of the international rackets without knowing anything. They were later found innocent.

More than 1,000 intelligence agents work for the SB, DB and other departments in Dhaka alone, but their output pales beside their size.