Home Minister MK Alamgir on Wednesday expressed his dissatisfaction with only 7.5% of cases filed for illegal narcotics business being disposed of in a year.
The delay in disposing of narcotics related cases is one of the key reasons behind the widespread drug trade and misuse in the country. It’s not acceptable, the home minister said.
The judges of the courts concerned should take the issue seriously, MK Alamgir told reporters after a meeting at his ministry.
The inter-ministerial meeting was on reviewing and controlling trade and misuse of narcotics in the country, with the home minister in the chair and high-ranking officials of the ministries and departments concerned were present.
According to the information provided in the meeting, the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) filed a total of 5,842 cases up to July 31, 2013 while police, Rapid Action Batalion, Border Guard Bangladesh and the Coast Guard filed 21,841 cases.
A total of 200,444 cases have been filed over the past four years and seven months in the country.
Of them, DNC has filed 40,388 and other agencies have filed 160,056 cases. There are approximately 55,000 cases pending with different courts in the country.
The attendees were told that a total of 1,383 cases were disposed of in 2013 in which 805 people were convicted and 731 were released as the cases were not proved in the courts.
MK Alamgir said only 56% of narcotics traders and bearers have been convicted while 37% were released as the cases have not been proved in the courts.
The minister said most of the illegal drugs and narcotics enter the country from Myanmar across the Naf River. “We have decided to strengthen patrols on the river to stop such illegal drug trading.”
The agencies concerned have already been instructed in this regard, he added.
“Besides, we decided to talk to the Myanmar authorities to strengthen its mobile patrol in the area through which illegal drugs and narcotics enter Bangladesh.”
The home ministry will also take steps to identify narcotics traders and bearers within the country and Legal action will be taken against them, with Ansar, the Village Defence Party (VDP), rural security forces and community police creating public awareness.
The government is also concerned about the activities of drug addict rehabilitation centres, the minister said, adding that the ministry had decided to assign two officers to monitor the activities of those centres.
Referring to Oishee’s case, the minister said it was absolutely an isolated event.
However, all guardians should remain vigilant to avoid the recurrence of such incidents, he noted