Mohammad Jamil Khan

IGP Mohammad Javed Patwary yesterday ordered the police officials to re-intensify the countrywide anti-narcotics drive.

Police high-ups yesterday placed before the home minister a host of demands that include land allocation for the force and appointment of police officials to the key posts, including that of the director general, at the passport department.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday gave her nod to all the demands placed before her on the opening day of the Police Week yesterday.

Yaba traders are adopting new techniques every day to bring the pills to the capital. They are now using mostly homeless children, aged between 10 and 15 years, as drug mules. They pay the children to take the risks.

One would be mesmerised by the duplex mansions by the 13km road between Teknaf Zero Point and Shah Porir Island. Most of the mansions are in the middle of farmland, forest or just beside the road.

With law enforcers locking up listed drug dealers and smugglers, new groups are filling their shoes adopting generous marketing strategies, including sales on credit. They are also using new routes to smuggle in yaba from Myanmar.

Nahiyan often springs up from bed at midnight and starts looking for her father Akramul Haque, the slain ward councillor of Teknaf municipality. The 12-year-old scurries to her father's bed and breaks down.

Take a trip down the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway, and you cannot miss the eye-catching duplex building by the main road near Leda station.

A two-storey training centre inside the secure compound of Cox's Bazar Police Lines is now the “safe home” for 63 alleged yaba godfathers and dealers in the district. At least 24 of them are on the government list of 73 top drug dealers in the country, said a top police official in Cox's Bazar.

Looking up at the Mayor Hanif Flyover at Sayedabad end, one can find two large road signs that read “vehicle stoppage is not allowed” and “crossing or movement of the pedestrian is prohibited”.

From Shishu Park to Shahbagh police box in the capital is a five-minute walk. But by bus on a weekday afternoon yesterday, it took over 30 minutes.

Inspired by last year's student movement for road safety, the traffic department of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) is going to include school and college students as volunteers in the fortnightly traffic discipline programme starting today.

For her birthday yesterday, all she wanted was a teddy bear from her parents. Billal Hossain, her uncle, was going to buy her one as a surprise.

Four Bangladeshi NGOs have channelled Tk 73 crore, received in foreign aids, to militant outfits and Jamaat-e-Islami over the last one year, law enforcement agencies have claimed following some recent arrests.

Voters in char areas of Lalmonirhat seem to have lost hope as several promises regarding the area's development had been announced in previous elections over the decades but nothing was done in reality.

Though Lalmonirhat-3 has been a stronghold of the Jatiya Party, a partner in the Awami League-led grand alliance, since 1991, the Jatiya Oikyafront, led by the BNP and several other parties, is eyeing a win this time.

There was a time when rickshaw-pullers in Rangpur denied ride requests if they came to know that the passenger had an inclination towards BNP or Awami League. They were often heard saying to people, “You are a not supporter of Jatiya Party. I won't carry you”.

Abdul Awal, 58, cannot hold back his excitement as for the first time in his life he would be voting in the 11th parliamentary polls on December 30.

With only few days remaining for national election, supporters of HM Ershad, nominated by Awami League-led grand alliance, are still waiting for funds to conduct campaign.

It was 6:00pm on November 13 when a young man was spotted shouting while vandalising a residence at Kaptan Bazar area in Cumilla.