A powerful crime syndicate in connivance with some foreign nationals has been importing light guns- particularly pistol, revolver, shotgun and rifle – declaring them as “toy” and using airport green channel apparently to dodge the law enforcement agencies.
At the same time, they are also depriving the government a huge amount of revenues bringing the “toys” under invoiced price taking advantage of relaxed mood of the National Board of Revenue [NBR].
The intelligence and law enforcement agencies have obtained the information after quizzing two Bangladesh-origin German nationals who were caught red-handed along with nine firearms at the green channel of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on September 27.
Sources close to the Customs Intelligence told The New Nation on Wednesday that the arrested German passport holders -Mohammad Monir Beg Ali and Anisul Islam Talukdar divulged other important information about the arms racket during their three-day remand.
During interrogation, the detainees also disclosed to the security officials that, two more German passport holders, one Tanvir Hassan alias Chhoto Moni and another Mohammad Sabu, had brought one more consignment of small arms declaring them as “toy” a few days earlier.
At that time, one Jamilur Rahman Miron was present at the HSIA to receive the duo and take them to a safe place along with the consignment. All of them were earlier accused in different criminal cases, including murder, in the country and fled to Germany to escape trial, sources said.
“We’ll search anything, if there is a doubt that it could be harmful for the country’s security. We’ll not spare anybody. Those who have brought the toy pistols did not obtain permission for importing. We’ve taken legal action against them for importing the item with false declaration,” Director General of Customs Intelligence Dr Moinul Khan told The New Nation on Wednesday night.
About other syndicate members, the DG said: “We’re trying to nab other members of the syndicate, who brought such items earlier, as per information given by them.
Meanwhile, arms experts of law enforcement agencies after preliminary examination assumed that the “toy” [pistols] could be turned into lethal weapons, if their barrels are changed. And it is possible to change these at anytime and anywhere.
At the same time, original bullets could be used in theses pistols to kill any person or making harm to humanity, the experts assumed. Probably, several small arms have already gone to the hands of militants through this means.
When asked about its fatality, the DG of Customs Intelligence said: “We’ve got information from one of the detainees that the barrels of the toy pistols could be changed to turn them into deadly weapons. However, we’ve sent those to conduct forensic test for better confirmation.”
Security officials said the government gives permission to import weapons [of restricted category] with paying taxes and duties as per law. In these criteria, mainly the non-prohibited bore of arms permitted for the civilians — point 22, point 25, point 357 and point 32 caliber– are being imported under the baggage rule from different foreign countries.
The small arms those are imported in Bangladesh are mostly Italy made Berretta pistol, US made Smith and Wesson pistol, Smith & Wesson revolver, France made Browning pistol, Turkey origin Fathi pistol and German version Walther PPK pistol.
Moreover, pump action shotgun, semi-automatic shotgun and point 22 bore AK 47 replica rifle made by Remington of USA, Benili of Italy and FABARM shotgun of Italy are highly popular in the personal level for importing, according to the sources.
The importer, as per the rule, should pay the Bangladesh government 218 per cent taxes altogether on landing cost including freight to import a single gun. In many cases, the importers allegedly show lower price of the purchased weapons in the documents depriving the country from huge amount of foreign currencies, the officials said.
There is widespread allegation that the NBR, which is the central authority for tax administration in the country, has apparently failed to check the ill practice by the importers due to poor monitoring of its intelligence wing.
