Watch on drug rehab centres stepped up

The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) yesterday closed five drug rehabilitation centres in the capital as those were running without licence.

The move comes days after the death of senior ASP Anisul Karim at Mind Aid Psychiatry and De-Addiction Hospital in the city's Adabor area.

Several teams raided the illegal centres in Doyaganj, Sanir Akhra, Mohammadpur and Mirpur areas and shut down their operations, DNC Director General Muhammed Ahsanul Jabbar told The Daily Star.

He said the DNC beefed up vigilance after the police officer was allegedly beaten to death inside the private rehabilitation centre by its staffers on November 9.

The DNC DG also said there were about 350 licensed rehab centres across the country, including 105 in the capital. "There is no scope to convert rehab facilities into psychiatric treatment facilities without permission, which was done by Mind Aid," he added.

During yesterday's drives, a team from the DNC's north division sealed off Hira Rehabilitation Centre in Mirpur-2 and Diner Alo Rehabilitation Centre in Mohammadpur. DNC officials said the centres had applied for licences but were yet to get them. They also did not have enough psychiatrists and support staffers, including ward boys.

A team from the DNC's south division conducted drives in Doyaganj, Sanir Akhra areas and closed three unauthorised rehab centres. It also arrested one person for selling medicines without approval from the relevant authorities, said the officials.

Manjurul Islam, deputy director (Dhaka South) of the DNC, told The Daily Star that they first raided Hadi Rehab Centre, situated on the eighth floor of Madina Hospital and Diagnostic Centre in Doyaganj, for operating without approval. There were 11 patients, who were handed to their guardians.

The team then shut down "Ananda and Jibon Paribartan" in Sanir Akhra area.

Manjurul said rehabilitation centres must have full-time doctors and part-time psychiatrists, but none of the said centres had any full-time doctors.

REGISTRAR'S ARREST IRKS PSYCHIATRISTS

The arrest of National Institute of Mental Health and Hospital (NIMH) Registrar Dr Abdullah Al Mamun following the death of the senior ASP has angered psychiatrists.

In protest, all psychiatrists in the country decided to close their private chambers and online healthcare services from yesterday to today evening, Bangladesh Association of Psychiatrists (BAP) said in a press statement yesterday.

On Tuesday, police arrested the NIMH registrar in Dhaka's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area. He was later placed on two-day remand. He allegedly had referred the police officer from NIMH to Mind Aid Psychiatry and De-Addiction Hospital as he gets commission on such referrals.

The BAP said they came to know that Anisul's sister and her husband, who are also doctors by profession, took him to Mind Aid hospital on their own as they were interested in giving Anisul treatment at a private facility.

They questioned how Dr Mamun could be an accused in a murder case when he was not present at the scene. They demanded immediate release of Mamun.

The association claimed that some media outlets were reporting on the incident "negatively, unscientifically and based on assumptions". It urged journalists to report the incident with objectivity.

Meanwhile, doctors and other staffers at NIMH yesterday staged a demonstration and observed work abstention protesting the arrest, from 10:00am, causing sufferings to patients and their relatives who were left to wait for nearly three hours.

Terming the allegations against Dr Mamun false, the agitators also confined the hospital Director Prof Dr Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder and other senior doctors to Bidhan's room.

After the protest ended, Dr Bidhan told reporters, "Dr Mamun was arrested in the hospital's dormitory around 4:00am on Tuesday. A government official cannot be arrested without the permission of the authorities."

Doctors at the hospital said their internal investigation did not find that registrar Mamun had any role in sending ASP Anisul to Mind Aid hospital.

With Mamun, 13 people, including two directors of Mind Aid hospital, have so far been arrested in the murder case.

Anisul's father Faijuddin Ahmed filed the case with Adabor Police Station on November 10, accusing 15 people, including five shareholders of the private hospital, for murdering his son.

Six out of 10 arrested employees of Mind Aid hospital admitted to a Dhaka court their involvement in the death of Anisul after competition of their seven-day remand each.

The hospital's three other directors are still on the run.

Meanwhile, a doctor, Nusrat Farzana, who was on duty at Mind Aid hospital on November 9, was granted anticipatory bail from the High Court till January 5.

Her lawyer Ruhul Quddus told reporters that the doctor was on "on-call duty" at the hospital. Her name was not mentioned as an accused in the case statement. The statement only says she assisted Anisul in the admission process.