Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Over 150 identified yaba smugglers are likely to surrender formally to the law enforcers for return to normal life in a colourful program in Cox’s Bazar district next Saturday.
Cops personnel have prepared a list of smugglers in a so-called ‘safe custody”.
But, no one revealed the exact number of smugglers in the “safe custody” and the conditions for their return to normal life “due to strategic reasons”.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal will attend the programme at Teknaf Pilot High School ground on Saturday morning, report our district correspondent quoting Cox’s Bazar Superintendent of Police ABM Masud.
The Home Minister will travel to the district a day before the programme while Over Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Javed Patwary will reach the venue today (Thursday) to inspect the preparations for the programme, the SP said.
“Cases will be started if they don’t return to normal activities. We’ll look into their cases if they don’t return to normal life,” the minister said.
Kamal asked about the possible conditions of their surrender.
“They have made through the illegal drug trade, which cost lives of at least 50 suspects only in Cox’s Bazar during anti-drug drives in recent months, will be legitimised through the surrender,” he said.
The Anti-Corruption Commission or the National Board of Revenue will take care of the assets issue, the minister said.
Deaths of suspected drug dealers, killed in so-called shootouts with police, have continued to be reported from across Bangladesh since Prime Minister ordered the anti-drug operations in May last year. Millions of yaba pills worth billions of taka are seized during anti-drug operations,”local sources said.
Of those listed as yaba traders by police, 1,151 individuals are based in Cox’s Bazar. Of them, 73 are identified as ‘top yaba bosses’, they said.
These are mostly influential people from Teknaf, a sub-district in Cox’s Bazar, and include some elected public representatives.
Parliament on Oct 27 last year passed a law with death as the maximum penalty for drug offences related to over 5 grams of methamphetamine amid the deadly crackdown.
As the smuggling proved difficult to contain, the government began discussing the possibility of allowing them to surrender. The idea began to gain ground when a group of yaba smugglers based in Cox’s Bazar contacted police to surrender.
Anamul Hoque, a union council member from Teknaf who police identified as a drug trader, announced his surrender on Facebook on January 15, triggering huge attention to the issue.
Drug lord Anamaul Hoque announced on Facebook that he would surrender.
“The journalist then contacted law-enforcers and others in the administration. Police then started moving,” the SP said.
Police wrote an official letter to the higher authorities about ‘the proposal’ from the yaba businessmen, he said.
Ex-MP Abdur Rahman Bodi and his relatives feature on a government list of top yaba traders. His wife Shahin Akhter is a MP.
Former MP and ruling Awami League leader in Cox’s Bazar, Abdur Rahman Bodi, reportedly tops the government list of drug lords who used to smuggle yaba.
His five brothers Abdus Shukkur, Abdul Amin, Mujibur Rahman, Mohammad Shafique and Mohammad Faysal, nephew Shahedur Rahman Nipu, and relatives Shahed Kamal and Kamrul Hasan Russell also feature on the list, according to sources.
But Bodi has always denied the reported claims. On January 10, he gave the yaba smugglers a five-day ultimatum to surrender.
His wife Shahin Akhter, who now represents the Teknaf-Ukhia constituency in parliament, threatened the smugglers with “dire consequences” if they did not surrender.
