5,653 free textbooks seized

Photo: TV grab

Rapid Action Battalion members seized 5,653 copies of high school textbooks, meant for free distribution, from Mohammadpur area of Dhaka this morning.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-2 conducted a drive at Islamia Book Library on Nurjahan Road around 11:00am and recovered 4,618 textbooks of different classes,” said Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan, director at Legal and Media Wing of Rab.

Later, the force also launched drives at the Mohammadpur house of the shop owner and recovered 1,035 more textbooks.

Rab also detained 10 people from the area for their alleged involvement with the illegal business.

During the primary interrogation, the detainees admitted that they have managed these books through several agents of the capital’s Bangla Bazar area, the Rab official said.

More than four crore primary and secondary school students will get their hands on new textbooks on the first morning of 2015, as the government has made all preparations to distribute around 32 crore copies of free textbooks.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the celebration by handing over books to students at different levels at the Gono Bhaban at 9:00am today.

The government has printed around 32.63 crore copies of textbooks to distribute among 4.44 crore students of primary and secondary schools, ebtedayee and Dakhil madrasas and technical institutions.

In 2009, the government decided to distribute textbooks free of cost in the wake of textbook crisis recurring every year. It has been distributing books to both primary and secondary students at the very beginning of the academic session since 2010.