Top yaba smuggler Saiful Karim has died in what the police claimed to be a shootout in Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf.
He was among the top yaba godfathers, alongside former Awami League MP Abdur Rahman Badi, in the list of 1,151 drug smugglers and dealers by the home ministry last year.
Saiful had been in police custody following his arrest, said Teknaf police Pradip Kumar Das.
Sources, however, confirmed Bangla Tribune earlier this week that Saiful, who is from Teknaf’s Shilbuniapara, has been willingly in police custody since Saturday, upon returning home from Dubai on a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight.
“During interrogation, Saiful confessed that a large consignment of yaba from Myanmar was stocked at location on the banks of the Naf River near the Teknaf land port,” he said.
Based on the information, a police team took Saiful along to recover the consignment in the early hours of Friday (May 31), according to OC Das.
“As soon as they reached the area, Saiful’s accomplices opened fire when the police retaliated. Saiful was caught in the cross-firing and rushed to the Teknaf Upazila Health Complex before being taken to the Cox’s Bazar Sadar Hospital, where the doctors declared him dead on arrival,” he said.
Sub Inspector Rasel Ahmed and Constables Imam Hossain and Md Soleman have also sustained injuries, added the police officer.
On Feb 16 this year, a total 102 yaba smugglers and dealers surrendered to police in the first phase at an event in Cox’s Bazar. Saiful was supposed to surrender at that time, but he did not show.
Sources confirmed Bangla Tribune that he returned from Dubai to turn himself in.

Who was Saiful?
On paper, according to law enforcement sources, Saiful Karim is a clearing and forwarding (C&F) agent and trader. He has a wood importing agency named SK International, which he reportedly uses as a front to run his real operation — smuggling yaba from Myanmar.
Sources said he has multiple ships that are used to smuggle in hundreds of thousands of yaba pills from 38 Myanmar-based factories to Bangladesh every day, for the market he created.
In 1998, he became close to a Myanmar-based yaba don named Moga Suibin, a most wanted drug dealer who was based out of the neighbouring country’s Maungdaw township, which is also Saiful’s paternal hometown.
About two years later, Saiful established SK International with funding from Moga. In 2001, he started smuggling in yaba from Myanmar under cover of his importing agency.
Reportedly, Saiful and his family currently own assets worth millions of takas, which include cash money, multiple ships, luxury apartments, and hotels.
Saiful Karim’s brother-in-law Saiful Islam and uncle, Md Ibrahim, who is from Maungdaw and the current backbone of his drug operation, are also involved in the yaba syndicate, said sources.
Nearly every report from every intelligence agency has the names of Saiful and his family members. His five brothers are also reportedly involved in yaba dealing.
But there were no narcotics cases against Saiful before 2017. Several cases were filed against him after 2017. The Anti-Corruption Commission too, filed a case against Saiful last month.
His younger brothers, Mahbub and Rashed, were also arrested on May 3 with 10,000 yaba pills and four firearms, in a police raid on their home in Teknaf. Prior to that, Saiful’s older brother Munna, was arrested by the Detective Branch of police last year.
However, police never managed to nab Saiful on narcotics charges unitl earlier this week.