It appears that law enforcers are less interested in raising awareness about narcotics; instead, there is a proclivity towards anti-drug drives which involve controversial ‘shootouts’.
Almost every day, extrajudicial killing is taking place somewhere in the country. Police, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and Coast Guard authority say that they are also concentrating on programmes aimed at raising public awareness.
As per information from Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) from May 15, 2018, till Aug 26, 2019, 424 persons were killed in 'shootouts'. Of this, 119 were killed during fight with RAB, 215 with police, 48 with DB and 39 with BGB.
Talking about awareness-building programmes, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of police Sohel Rana says: “Police have several initiatives and through these, the adverse impact of drugs is being related to all layers of the community.”
RAB’s media wing official says that RAB is carrying out publicity against drugs by handing out information about addiction.
From May 3, 2018, till Aug 8, RAB seized drugs worth Tk 6.96 billion.
Relevant quarters feel that drug smuggling is mainly carried out over the water and Coast Guard says that in 2018, narcotics worth Tk 4.75 billion were recovered. From January 2019 till 31 July recovered narcotics worth Tk 811.25 million.
Coast Guard media official Lt Hayat Ibne Siddiq says. “We have awareness-building work.”
Meanwhile, the BGB public relations department says that in 2018, BGB seized 12.35 million yaba tablets.
From January till 31 July of 2019, around 800,000 yaba tablets were seized every month.
Additional Director General of BGB, Brigadier General Khondokar Farid Hassan, says: “BGB follows a zero-tolerance policy against narcotics and we maintain constant vigil at the borders.”
BGB is also engaged in building public awareness, he added.
However, all the forces engaged in the eradication of drugs deny reports about extrajudicial killings.
Narcotics Control Bureau has upazila level committees to coordinate and monitor awareness programmes and their slogan is: “There’s only one life, love it and stay away from drugs.”