Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Eighty seven yaba dealers out of 1,153 are likely to surrender to law enforcement agencies in Cox’s Bazar in the first week of February.
Several dozen listed drug-gang members were reportedly killed in ‘gunfights’ with the law enforces, police sources said.
For fear of crackdown by law enforcement agencies, many drug dealers prefer jail for their own safety, said intelligence and family sources.
Cops personnel, mainly detectives, have already prepared a list of drug peddlers with inputs from various intelligence agencies, they said.
According to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs, at least 60 top drug dealers and 1,153 drug peddlers were identified by the ministry. Of them, 800 peddlers were are from Teknaf and the remaining from Cox’s Bazar district.
In the latest, nine suspected yaba traders were killed between January 4 and January 12 (nine days) in an anti-drug drive in Cox’s Bazar.
Even at least 37 drug dealers, mainly 34 from Teknaf upazila, were killed in gunfights with cops personnel during the crackdown against drug dealers since May 4 last year.
On January 11, former MP Abdur Rahman alias Bodi asked the enlisted drug traders to surrender within the time, or face terrible consequences.
He also urged them to communicate with him, saying he would help them surrender.
In response to the call for surrender, an identified drug trafficker Enamul Huq, also a union parishad councilor in Cox’s Bazar has already surrendered to law enforcers, announcing his intention to do so earlier through social media site Facebook.
There are reports that like Enamul more than one hundred are following suit and assembled in Cox’s Bazar to seek ‘security in custody’.
Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) reports, ,incidents of extrajudicial killing were rising alarmingly, especially after the anti-drug drives began. In all, 466 people have been killed in countrywide anti-drug raids conducted by law enforcement agencies between May 4 and December 31 last year, the report said.
In 2018, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members seized smuggled goods and other contraband items, including yaba tablets and Phensidyl syrup, worth around Tk. 903.74 crore, during its countrywide anti-smuggling drives.
Contraband drugs included 12,658,518 yaba tablets, 359,150 bottles of Phensidyl syrup, 33.351 kg of heroin, 13,682 kg of cannabis, 79,286 bottles of foreign wine, 36,435 cans of bear and 19,448 sedative injections.
Sources close to the BGB Headquarters said the paramilitary force seized smuggled goods worth around Tk. 1,217.55 crore in 2017 and Tk. 1,161.67 crore in 2016.
The BGB also handed over 2,705 people to local police stations for their alleged involvement in smuggling and 1,316 others for illegal border crossing from January 1 to December 31, 2018. Early on January 13 this year, the BGB seized around 1.20 lakh yaba pills, worth Tk. 3.60 crore, from the Alir Dail area in Teknaf upazila.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, said, “Listed smugglers of illegal drugs were gathering in the district amidst an ongoing anti-drug raid. I asked the police to prepare details of the identities of the yaba traders,”
“We will go to Cox’s Bazar on the 30th of January or in the first week of February,” said the minister.
“To prevent the drug business across the country, we will work with commitment under the new government,” DNC Director General Jamal Uddin Bhuiyan said.
“We have declared jihad against the drug business. We have already directed all DNC officials to take measures against drugs,” he said.
“Several smugglers have contacted law enforcement agencies. They want to surrender. The matter is being discussed in the top levels of administration, but no exact number can be disclosed as of now,” said ABM Masud Hossain, Superintendent of police of Cox’s Bazar,
As most of the listed drug dealers and peddlers have fled the area and are currently in hiding, none of the suspects can be arrested, he claimed.
