Anti-drug drive

Being pursued on a flawed strategy

We remain deeply skeptical and concerned about the strategies employed by the security forces to curb the drug trade. So far, 42 alleged drug traders have been killed in so-called shootouts across the country.

There's no doubt that the drug problem is a grave threat to our society, which must be addressed in a holistic manner. But a large number of those killed in the operations, we feel, were mere foot soldiers; the godfathers who control the narcotics business remain at large. To contain the pervasive menace, the government must go after the financiers, manufacturers and distributors and bring them to book.

In the case of the ongoing operation, the extrajudicial handling of the entire affair creates a scope for innocent people to be targeted and harmed. Already, there are reports that security forces had gunned down an innocent man in Chittagong on the basis of inaccurate information from a source, who was also later killed. In Feni and Gazipur, families of men killed in “shootouts” have alleged that the local police sought bribe in exchange for their release. In Feni, relatives have alleged that the failure to pay the bribe led to their deaths, while in Gazipur's Tongi, the police allegedly killed a detained man even after having been paid the bribe.

Apart from concerns about the rule of law, international experts who have extensively studied such “war on drugs” have concluded that they were failed, and often counterproductive, strategies. They have found no positive long-term impact of this method of anti-drug campaign.

The stated objective of the security force's ongoing operation is, of course, good, but the method employed to achieve the objective is erroneous. Not only is such a strategy unlikely to be successful, it gives a carte blanche to law enforcement agencies and makes them wantonly indiscriminate. That is a situation the nation cannot afford.

• Courtesy: The Daily Star /Editorial /My 25, 2018