28,800 Yaba Tablets Found Inside Hydraulic Jack on Bus in Chattogram's Baklia, Passenger Arrested

The Detective Branch (DB) of Chattogram Metropolitan Police has recovered 28,800 yaba tablets from inside a hydraulic jack kept in the luggage box of a Hanif Paribahan passenger bus travelling from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka. The estimated market value of the recovered yaba is Tk 86 lakh 40 thousand.

A passenger named Md Jalal Uddin (44) was arrested in the incident. DB North and South Division Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Shariful Islam gave the information at a press conference at the city police commissioner's office on Tuesday (27 October) afternoon.

DB sources said that, acting on secret information, DB North Division's Team-1, Team-2 and a special team set up a temporary checkpoint in front of Nahar Scale in the Rajakhali area under Baklia Police Station at 12:40 am on Monday night.

When a Hanif Enterprise bus (Dhaka Metro-B 15-7954) travelling from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka reached the checkpoint, it was searched. Passenger Jalal Uddin was detained, and, as shown by him, the yaba tablets were recovered from inside the hydraulic jack in the bus's luggage box.

At the press conference, Sheikh Shariful Islam said drug traffickers are adopting new techniques every day to transport drugs. Hiding yaba inside a hydraulic jack is an example of that.

The arrested Jalal Uddin's home is in Debipara, Ward No. 6 of North Dailpara in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar. His father's name is the late Hashem.

Checking his previous criminal record, police found information about two cases filed against him under the Narcotics Control Act. One was filed on 9 July 2017 at Cox's Bazar Sadar Police Station and the other on 4 August 2023 at Motijheel Police Station in Dhaka.

Answering journalists' questions, Sheikh Shariful Islam said that however much criminals change their techniques, police are identifying them and bringing them under the law. He said the police position against drugs and crime has never been soft or weak and will not be in future, and such operations will continue.

On the success rate of operations, he said it is difficult to judge precisely. Out of 10 operations, information may prove wrong in 9 and success may come in one. But police do not sit idle because of wrong information or failure; operations against drugs and irregularities are continuing in neighbourhoods and different areas.

Asked whether the bus would be seized, the DB deputy commissioner said Section 38 of the Narcotics Control Act, 2018 allows legal action against a driver or owner if they are knowingly involved in carrying drugs in a vehicle. But in this incident the arrested man was not the bus driver, supervisor or assistant; he boarded the bus as an ordinary ticket-holding passenger and was himself carrying the yaba hidden inside the hydraulic jack. So no direct involvement of the bus was found.

Police said the process of filing a regular case against Jalal Uddin under the Narcotics Control Act at Baklia Police Station and sending him to court is under way.