The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) personnel seized Indian Rs6 crore (equivalent to Tk7.5 crore) of counterfeit currency and contraband medicine worth Tk1 crore from the Shahjalal International Airport, yesterday.
The fake notes and medicine were smuggled into Bangladesh from Pakistan via Qatar Airways in a consignment booked under the name of Kamal Ahmed of South Keraniganj, said CIID Assistant Director Ayesha Akhter.
The currency was brought into Dhaka in five cartons of medicine,” the CIID official said, “and the medicines were seized as they were not approved by the drugs administration for import.”
She said the CIID acted on a tip-off and recovered the smuggled goods from the airport’s cargo complex at around 9:30am.
Earlier on April 20, police seized fake notes worth Indian Rs80 lakh from a passenger named Alauddin in Uttara. On April 19, another youth coming from Pakistan was arrested with Rs50 lakh worth of fake currency at the airport, and on April 5 a Pakistani national was arrested with Rs88 lakh worth of fake notes.
According to the customs officials, around 95% of the Indian currencies seized at the airport were found to be fake.
Sources in police and intelligence said different militant groups based in Pakistan and active in Bangladesh had been used to circulate the counterfeit currency.
Over the past few years, police, RAB and customs officials have seized counterfeit Indian currency worth more than Tk100 crore in the country and detained as many as 60 Pakistani and 150 Bangladeshi nationals in this regard, including leaders and activists from militant organisations like Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami and Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.
