The government is now reportedly considering providing the drug traders option to surrender in the midst of the ongoing anti-drug operation that began in May last year. Law enforcing agencies, including police and RAB, are preparing lists of the drug traders who want to surrender. Meanwhile, the anti-drug drive and the drug business are continuing simultaneously at the same pace.
At least 410 alleged drug peddlers have been killed, 150,000 suspects arrested and 100,000 cases filed in the nine months of the anti-drug crackdown.
The anti-narcotics operations was launched on May 14 aimed largely at stemming the flow of Yaba tablets, a methamphetamine manufactured and smuggled in from neighboring Myanmar, authorities said.
During operations run last month and in the first 18 days of January, BGB, RAB, police, the Coast Guard and the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC), recovered a total of 1.5 million Yaba tablets. The reports provided by the law enforcement agencies about these hauls are not convincing. The volume of dugs entering Bangladesh and being sold is far more than has been caught, sources said.
Thousands of persons in the country have been ruined by drugs, particularly by Yaba coming in from over the Myanmar border. A single drug addict is enough to bring down an entire family.
Even before the government has announced its decision, the person who has appealed to the drug traders to surrender, is himself alleged to be a godfather in the narcotics network. In fact, many members of his family are said to be involved in drug dealings. Some of them have fled the country. So the appeal to surrender can be construed as a way of giving them legal protection, says a DNC insider.
The drug business can hardly thrive without being aided and abetted by the influential and powerful persons. While certain political elements are involved in this, so are members of the law enforcement agencies, it is alleged.
So if anything tangible is to be done against the drug trade, this criminal nexus is to be broken. It is not an easy task, but it must be done, said a victim's family member.
Sources at the DNC told the Daily Observer that they were realizing the ruling Awami League's election pledge of a zero-tolerance policy against drugs to protect the next generation from the threat.
A draft law awarding death penalty to Yaba offenders was approved in principle by the Cabinet last year. Narcotics Control Act was formulated in 1990 and it was being updated after 28 years in line with UN conventions on drug trafficking and narcotics control, of which Bangladesh is a signatory.
If a person carries, trades, stores, or processes Yaba weighing less than five grams, he or she could be sentenced to five years in jail and fined, according to the new law.
About 50 of the methamphetamine pills weigh five grams, according to officials of the DNC.
