THREE policemen and a police source were arrested at Sakhipur upazila in Tangail following allegations that they attempted to frame a man with Yaba tablets on Thursday night. The arrestees included an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Bashtoil Police Outpost under Mirzapur Police Station and two constables. Five policemen in plainclothes and their two sources went to Hotel area in Sakhipur upazila and tried to put Yaba tablets in the shirt-pocket of labourer Bazlur Rahman, 25, and forcibly get him into a three-wheeler. Locals intercepted the vehicle hearing his scream. Angry people searched the policemen and found several Yaba pills in their possession. Then they beat up the policemen along with the source and confined them to a shop. Two other policemen managed to flee away. Later, a team from Mirzapur Police Station rescued the three policemen and the source.
Framing innocent people putting Yaba pills and other drugs in their pockets for extorting money is an old business for a section of policemen. Apart from taking monthly or weekly payment from drug dens, a good number of policemen are also allegedly engaged in drug business directly. In September, five policemen were arrested while distributing Yaba pills among themselves at an APBn barrack in the capital’s Uttara. Several members of Law Enforcement Agency have already been caught for their involvement in illegal activities. But what’s most dangerous is that they often try to implicate ordinary people in false cases framing them with narcotics or firearms. From student to businessman and service-holder to rickshaw-puller – nobody is safe from them.
We do believe that the police high-ups are serious enough to take departmental action against some of their derailed members for their involvement in different illegal activities, including mugging and extortion. But it seems this type of harmless departmental action is not enough to correct the misguided policemen when crimes among the law enforcers are alarmingly increasing.
