COX'S BAZAR, May 20: Despite Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent announcement of showing zero tolerance to yaba peddling, the dealers of this illegal business are still active.
They seem to become more defiant day by day. To show strength of their yaba network, they recently attacked Detective Branch (DB) of police at Nazirpara village under Teknaf upazila on Thursday last. At that time, four policemen including two assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs) and a police vehicle driver were injured while the vehicle was vandalised.
Police arrested one in this connection and filed a case with Teknaf Police Station.
On Thursday night, on a tip-off, a DB police team led by Sub-Inspector (SI) Sumon besieged the house of Nazirpara union parishad (UP) Member Enamul Haque. The matter was announced through the mike in the mosque that men of local Bhutto Bahini came to take Enamul Member with the help of DB policemen.
Hearing this, hundreds of villagers attacked DB police's vehicle and vandalised it. At that time, ASI Asaduzzaman, ASI Firoz Mia, Constables- Al Amin and Sumaiya Sultana, and vehicle driver Bappi were seriously injured in the attack.
Later, Teknaf Model Thana police sent additional police force and controlled the situation. SI Sumon filed a case in this connection accusing nine named and 150 unnamed persons with the police station.
Police arrested one Shamsul Alam, son of Abdul Hakim, of Nazirpara village, in this connection and later produced him before court, said Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Teknaf Model Police Station Md Main Uddin Khan.
DB Police SI Sumon said, the top-listed yaba peddler Enam and his supporters earlier attacked Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on April 2, 2015. There are nine cases against him including yaba peddling and creating obstruction to government work.
It was known that centring yaba peddling and supremacy in the area, Enam group is in conflict with his cousin and top-listed yaba peddler Nurul Haque Bhutto group. Following this, several cases were also filed.
Meanwhile, DB police thinks that though there is feud between the two groups, they jointly attacked police. The leaders of the two groups have also been implicated in the case filed by DB police.
In this connection, Enamul Haque said, "I do not know why I have been implicated in the case though I am on bail in all cases. A vested corner is trying to harass me in a planned way."
Nurul Haque Bhutto said, "Though I did not attack on police, I have been implicated in the case. I demand fair investigation in this connection."
Around one year ago of the incident, six journalists were attacked by the men of Bhutto while they went to Nazirpara to collect news on yaba peddling.
It may be mentioned that the PM Sheikh Hasina announced at a meeting in Cox's Bazar on May 6 last that the government will show zero tolerance to yaba peddling. Following this, the local law enforcement departments became active. In the meantime, divisional-level officials of police and BGB sat in a meeting to decide strategy to arrest the yaba traders.
Though the law-enforcing agencies could not show much success in arresting yaba peddlers since then, the drives are continuing.
On May 24 next, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Haque will visit Cox's Bazar. In this connection, all the units of the district police have started large scale actions to recover yaba and arrest yaba peddlers. But, the drives are tarnished by the allegations of bribe which police take and later free the arrested.
OC of Teknaf Model Police Station Md Main Uddin Khan said, "Police have to face allegations if they do not conduct drive and even conduct drive. Despite this, Teknaf Model Police recovered some big cache of yaba tablets and arrested some peddlers recently."
He further said, "The syndicate behind yaba peddling is very strong here. It is hard to distinguish yaba peddlers from non-peddlers. Meanwhile, due to unnecessary eagerness of some public representatives, we are facing obstacles in conducting the drives."
President of Teknaf Upazila Awami League and former lawmaker Professor Mohammad Ali said, "It is easy to identify yaba peddlers. The yaba peddlers who were arrested so far are inter-related. It is necessary to take action against these yaba godfathers."
In a recent list of 15 yaba peddlers by the Home Ministry, there are names of lawmaker of Ukhia-Teknaf constituency Abdur Rahman Bodi and Teknaf Upazila Chairman Jafar Alam.
Local people think that if the two families could be controlled, the yaba peddling would be minimised to a large extent.
