Transfer must within a year

Law enforcement and government officials will not be allowed to be posted in the smuggling-prone border areas for more than a year.

However, officials with good reputation for anti-smuggling efforts would stay put, the National Anti-Smuggling Committee decided yesterday.

The decisions were made at a meeting of the committee, with Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan in the chair at his ministry, said meeting sources.

The committee reached the decisions following intelligence reports that many law enforcers got involved in smuggling due to their long stay in particular areas.

Some officials of Border Guard Bangladesh and police made a huge amount of money after their posting to border areas, according to the reports.

Presently, an official get a posting for three years.

Talking to The Daily Star after the meeting, the home minister said: “We've decided not to allow any government official to stay in an area for more than a year.”

The home ministry will prepare a list of law enforcement and government officials, elected public representatives and the people involved in smuggling in border areas, he added.

“Although drawing up lists of smugglers and their patrons is a routine work, we'll now prepare the list of smugglers and their associates and will bring them to book.”

The meeting discussed implementation of the decisions of the committee's previous meeting held on March 31. On that day, the committee had decided to further empower the anti-smuggling mobile courts to enable them hand down punishment to smugglers on the spot.

Yesterday's meeting, however, said the mobile courts should be operated in presence of executive magistrates.

Participants of the meeting expressed disappointment at bail being granted to smugglers shortly after their arrests and their involvement in smuggling again.

Officials requested the law secretary to initiate measures to strengthen the existing anti-smuggling law so that criminals can't secure bail easily.

The meeting decided to speed up investigations into smuggling cases to complete trails.

Representatives of National Board of Revenue (NBR) wanted to know about the whereabouts of the smuggled goods already seized by law enforcers.

The home minister asked the BGB authorities to provide him with a monthly list of seized smuggled goods.

The meeting also decided to put inerasable marks on the smuggled saris so that those could not be sold in local markets.

Briefing reporters after meeting, Asaduzzaman said there should a public awareness campaign to stop smuggling.

Law enforcers rounded up 10,313 people and seized goods worth around Tk 1,487 crore during the anti-smuggling drives across the country from July to December last year, he added.

Home and law secretaries and representatives from the BGB, police, Rab, Bangladesh Coast Guard, Department of Narcotics Control and NBR were present at the meeting.