The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Tens of thousands of youths in the country have become drug addicts and the menace is eating into the vitals of the society.

The country's existing law is enough to effectively combat the wide-spread menace of drugs, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Nur Mohammad told reporters after attending a RAB-organised narcotics-destruction programme at the RAB-1 office yesterday morning.

There is no need to make new law to eliminate drugs and terrorism from the country. It'll be possible through the existing laws of the state if proper and strict implementation is ensured, he said.

The law-enforcing agencies incinerated huge quantities of narcotics worth over Tk 2 crore that were seized in the last 2 to 3 months in country-wide drives against drugs.

Among the drug items, the elite force destroyed 42,488 bottles and 252.8 liters of banned Indian cough-syrup 'phensidyl', around 300 kgs of cannabis, over 1.5 lakh Yaba tablets that has been destroying high-society youngsters.

In reply to a question, the IGP said they would take special initiatives against terrorists, if necessary, ahead of the general election and hoped that the upcoming parliamentary polls would be held in a terrorism-free environment.

Some unexpected incidents occurred in recent times, but it is isolated, not alarming, he said.

Speaking as chief guest at the function, the police boss said everybody would have to work unitedly to fight out drugs from the country, as the law- enforcers could not do it alone.

Terming the country's legal system time-consuming, Nur Mohammad said due to loopholes in legal system, many of the listed drug traders and criminals came out from jail on bail.

Now the time has come to rethink about the problem, said the IGP, who recently earned ire of higher authorities for his comments about delays in proclamation of a proposed police ordinance.

Rapid Action Battalion Director General Hasan Mahmud Khandokar said RAB would take special security measures ahead of the polls so that criminals could not disrupt the environment of election.

We will inform people of the country about it through media at a suitable time, he said.

Earlier, people of different professions, including film-star Razzak and singer Fahmida Nabi, spoke on the occasion.