Drug barons must face the music
Nabbing petty drug
peddlers will not
help much. What is
needed is catching
the big-shots,
the godfathers,
involved in drug
smuggling and trading
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal recently said that no godfather involved in drug trading would be spared. He said this while inaugurating a month-long countrywide drive and campaign against illegal drugs at BIAM auditorium adjacent to the sea beach in Coxs Bazar. A report on this appeared in this newspaper on January 3. It is a fact that drug menace is spreading its tentacles fast in the country. Smuggling of some deadly drugs including Yaba is rampant and those reach the remote areas of the country quickly.
What is worrying is that people belonging to all strata of society including school, college and university students are victims of drug addiction. Various crimes are occurring in the country due to drug addiction and trading. The addicts are getting exposed to health hazards as drug addiction has severe health consequences.
Drug addicts become involved in many crimes, starting from petty theft to even committing murder. One drug addict is enough to jeopardize the peace of the whole family.
Nabbing petty drug peddlers will not help much. What is needed is catching the big-shots, the godfathers, involved in drug smuggling and trading. Yaba and other drugs are entering the country illegally through land, sea and river routes. Some people in Coxs Bazar and other coastal and border areas have become unbelievably rich by doing illegal drug business. Their involvement in human trafficking cannot also be ruled out. It is alleged that there exists an unholy nexus between the powerful drug barons and a section of corrupt members of the law enforcement agencies. In that case the corrupt officials should be identified and penalised. However powerful the godfathers are, they must be reined. Zero tolerance for them. They must be brought to justice.
Our porous borders should be monitored so that no drug can enter into the country illegally. The dens of manufacturing drugs inside the country should be busted and the people connected with the crime must be brought to justice. Otherwise, combating the drug trade will remain only a pipedream.
