The National Emergency Service 999, introduced to provide rapid support during accidents and crises, is struggling with pressure from unnecessary, silent and prank calls, officials say.
Police say the toll-free helpline, launched on December 12, 2017, connects callers across Bangladesh with police assistance, fire service, ambulance and other emergency support. It operates round the clock from the Police Control Room on Abdul Gani Road in Dhaka.
Many people are now more comfortable reporting incidents to 999 than going directly to police stations. But more than half of all incoming calls are unrelated to genuine emergencies, according to National Emergency Service 999 statistics.
Officials said the volume of such calls delays responses to people in real danger and increases pressure on call takers and dispatchers.
The service currently has 450 staff members working in three shifts across 100 lines.
Julhas Haji told BSS that 999 helped save a seven-month-old child who fell critically ill on the Karnaphuli-3 launch while travelling from Bhola to Dhaka.
“A seven-month-old child became critically ill on the Karnaphuli-3 launch travelling from Bhola to Dhaka. I called 999, and rescue operations began shortly afterward. The baby’s condition was very serious. Without 999, it might not have been possible to save the child,” he said.
Officials said many callers ask for mobile recharge, financial assistance or other irrelevant services. Some parents hand phones to children to stop them from crying, allowing them to dial 999, while others deliberately provide false information to mislead law enforcement agencies.
Call taker Ratan Hossain said a caller from Shahzadpur in Sirajganj once reported a fire incident. The fire service was alerted immediately, but firefighters found no such incident on arrival. When officials later tried to call the number back, it was switched off.
According to police data, from December 12, 2017, to April 30, 2026, National Emergency Service 999 received 71.17m calls. Service was provided against 31.74m calls, or 44.6% of the total.
By contrast, 39.43m calls, or 55.4%, did not require service, meaning unnecessary and unwanted calls outnumbered genuine service calls.
The number of genuine emergency calls for service was 2.66m. Of these, 2.23m were for police assistance, 205,448 for fire service support and 225,611 for ambulance support.
The data also show 30.73m silent calls, 2.67m prank calls and 6.03m missed calls during the period.
Officials said these calls waste valuable time, put pressure on the emergency response system and affect the ability to receive real emergency calls promptly.
Anwar Sattar, media and public relations officer of National Emergency Service 999, said 70% to 80% of calls were previously unnecessary.
Due to awareness campaigns, that figure has now dropped to around 50%, he said.
He added that numbers making repeated nuisance calls are blocked for a specific period.
Section 70 of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Act, 2001 identifies unreasonable and disturbing phone calls as punishable offences, carrying a fine of up to Tk100,000 or six months’ imprisonment for non-payment. However, officials said the law is rarely enforced in practice.
Mohiul Islam, chief of National Emergency Service 999 and additional deputy inspector general of police, said unnecessary calls were causing serious delays.
“Because of unnecessary calls, people now have to wait nearly two minutes for emergency calls to be received, which is extremely concerning. Such long waiting times are not seen in emergency services anywhere else in the world,” he told BSS.
“Many callers also use abusive language, creating mental pressure on call takers. However, instead of immediate punitive action, we are focusing more on raising public awareness,” he added.
Officials said National Emergency Service 999 is not just a phone number, but one of the country’s key lifelines. They said avoiding unnecessary and fake calls and increasing public awareness are essential to keeping the service effective.
