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| Photo file from Mizzima website showing some Bangladeshi who surrendered in January 2020 |
Bangladesh authorities
reported on Tuesday that dozens of Bangladeshi drug kingpins surrendered in a
meth hub along the border with Myanmar as Philippine-like crackdown against violators
continue.
Reports
said that addiction to “yaba “, a cheap and addictive methamphetamine pill in
Bangladesh, has increased in the recent years.
Authorities
also said that border towns have become the hotpots for trafficking as Rohingya
refugees, who fled Myanmar in 2017, turned into smuggling as they try to earn
and make ends meet.
Late
Monday, police said that some 21 smugglers from Teknaf-- a major transit point
used by dealers to bring in tens of millions of yaba pills from Myanmar's
border states surrendered.
"I
welcome those who surrender today because we will not let any drug dealers
sleep in peace," says regional police chief Golam Faruk on Monday during a
ceremony.
The drug
kingpins also surrendered thousands of yaba pills and weapons as they swear to
public that they would never smuggle and sell drugs again.
Due to increasing
addiction rate in the said country, Bangladesh adopted the Filipino-style
anti-drug campaign.
Just like
in the Philippines, the said crackdown earned criticisms among rights and
activist groups.
Activists claimed
that many were killed in staged confrontations, where police execute unarmed
suspects and later claim it as self-defense.
The illegal
drugs crackdown in Bangladesh made 102 yaba traders surrender to the country's
home minister last February, reports said.
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