It’s sensitive

The government has turned down the proposal of buying mobile trackers for the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC).

DNC placed the proposal before a virtual meeting of the National Narcotics Control Advisory Committee on December 28 last year with an explanation that they need to buy mobile trackers to monitor and trace location of narcotics rings and masterminds.

The committee president -- Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal -- had said mobile tracking is a "sensitive issue", and it will not be right to buy mobile trackers right now.

In exchange for it, the committee suggested to give responsibility to a DNC officer in the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center (NTMC) to monitor and get information of drug traffickers.

Senior secretary of Public Security Division of the home ministry will issue a written order to ensure access of the DNC officer into the NTMC, said meeting sources. The senior Secretary, director general (DG) of NTMC and DG of DNC were asked to oversee the directives.

Muhammad Abdur Rauf Miah, deputy secretary of the home ministry, issued the written directives regarding the virtual meeting on February 14.

DNC officials said they often face difficulties while conducting operations through traditional method of using sources.

In many cases, narcotics masterminds remain untouched and manage to flee before the operations, they said. If a mobile tracking system was available then it would be easier for them to trace their location, they added.

Officials further claimed that DNC has already increased its vigilance and anti-narcotics drives to battle the trading of drugs such as yaba.

According to its database, around 3.18 crore yaba tablets were recovered in 11 months in 2020 while the figure was 346 crore in 2019.

The figure was 2.94 crore in 2016, 4.79 crore in 2017 and around 5.30 crore in 2018.

Md Bazlur Rahman, assistant director (operations) of DNC, said, "We are adopting new techniques every day so that narcotics traders do not get the chance to smuggle yaba."

Asked, Muhammed Ahsanul Jabbar, director general of DNC, told The Daily Star yesterday that the advisory committee has refused their proposal to buy mobile trackers.

"We are trying to submit a proposal again so that we can at least get the facilities to trace location of the narcotics smugglers and where they are hiding under a mobile tower while conducting operations," added the DG.