Drugs enter BD due to its geographical location

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said on Monday illegal drugs enter Bangladesh from India and Myanmar due to its geographical location, reports UNB.

"Although Bangladesh is not a drug-producing country, it's now facing the menace due to its geographical location," he said while responding to a tabled starred question from Jatiya Party MP M Mujibul Huq in the Jatiya Sangsad (JS).

The minister said Yaba is coming to the country from Myanmar while cannabis, Phensidyl, heroin and injectable drugs are making their way into Bangladesh from India.

He said Yaba is smuggled into the country mainly through the Naf River. "To prevent the entry of Yaba into Bangladesh, the government has created a temporary circle of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) comprising nine officials.

Besides, an anti-narcotic team of 19 officials, including10 Ansar men, is working in Cox's Bazar district," he said.

Asaduzzaman also mentioned that 31 posts have been created at the DNC under the leadership of deputy director in Cox's Bazar.

He said there is a plan to establish a naval unit in Teknaf of Cox's Bazar to stop drug smuggling.

The minister said at present, Ansar men are deployed in five border districts while adequate number of Ansar men will be deployed gradually in other border districts of the country along with the DNC officials.

He said law enforcement agencies lodged 119,878 cases against 161,323 drug traders in 2018 while the number was 6156 against 6671 drug traders in the first month of the current year.

To tackle the drug problem, Asaduzzaman said five bilateral meetings at the director general level were held between Bangladesh and India while a move is underway to hold the sixth one.

Replying to another question from ruling party MP M Abdul Latif, Asaduzzaman said the government has taken a project to collect special helicopters for using those during any fire incident in multi-storey buildings.

Besides, he said, scrutiny of specification for purchasing a Ka-32A11BC firefighting helicopter from a Russian company is under process.

Answering to another query from ruling party MP Mozaffar Hossain, the minister said the approved workforce of police is 212,007 with 201,393 of them being policemen and 10,614 non-police.

He said as the number of police is lesser than the requirement, the government in its first term created 32,031 posts while 48,300 posts were created during the second term against approved 50,000 ones."A proposal for creating the rest of the posts is under process at different ministries," he said