Feature: Addiction to yaba drug in Bangladesh alarming; authorities trying to stem proliferation

Six months after the killing of a police officer and his wife, the Detective Branch (DB) of Bangladesh Police has finally filed double murder charges against Oishee Rahman, the couple's daughter.

On Aug. 16, 2013, police found the bodies of Special Branch Inspector Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife Swapna Rahman at their flat in Dhaka.

In the charge sheet, DB Inspector Abul Khair pointed to Oishee, an O level student, as the murderer of her parents by stabbing them indiscriminately after mixing sleeping pills with their coffee after they tried to stop her from taking drugs.

The medical report found her mentally unstable as she had been taking the contraband yaba tablets before and during the murder.

In Bangladesh, yaba is a growing national concern because of a number of tragic incidents caused by the addictive substance. Yaba is said to be a sex stimulant and has hallucinatory effects on the user.

Last month, a 26-year old husband stabbed his pregnant wife with scissors and killed their unborn baby in a fit of drug- induced rage. The yaba addict stopped supporting his family and sold off his shop and shanty to support his drug habit.

Other crimes committed in the capital show that yaba has not only caused family dislocation but also the killing of innocent persons. Drug-crazed individuals become oblivious to their surroundings, including their families, and inflict harm even on their loved ones.

Government law-enforcement agencies have seized yaba tablets almost every day, in large and small quantities, across Bangladesh, including in the country's southeastern part bordering India and Myanmar. But drug traffickers obviously have succeeded in eluding the authorities as the proliferation of yaba continues.

Last month, Bangladeshi anti-crime elite force Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) detained two people, including an official, and seized around 700,000 yaba tablets from his car.

The seizure came weeks after RAB seized about half a million yaba tablets from a fishing boat at the outer anchorage of the seaport in Chittagong, some 242 km southeast of capital Dhaka, in June this year.

The latest instance of such big seizure came Tuesday when the elite force confiscated 76,000 yaba tablets in an area in the old part of Dhaka.

Acting on a tip off, RAB operatives raided a house in the city and seized the tablets. The Bangladesh Navy also seized some 1.5 million yaba tablets, the biggest-ever haul of the illegal drug in the country's history, from a fishing trawler at the outer anchorage of Chittagong seaport.

The use of yaba has increased in the country by 77 times over the past six years while the intake of other drugs like phensidyl and heroin has declined.

Bangladesh often points its fingers at Myanmar nationals for smuggling of contraband yaba tablets into Bangladesh.

A major part of the illegal drug is reportedly smuggled regularly from Myanmar as Bangladesh shares around 271 km of border with the southeastern neighbor that includes 208 km of land and 63 km of Naf River.

Apart from Myanmar, the drug is also reportedly smuggled into Bangladesh by air and land routes from some other regional countries including India, Nepal and Thailand.

A Home Ministry official said Bangladesh could better combat the yaba menace if Yangon beefs up measures to seal the routes used by smugglers and drug traders. Most of the smuggled drugs are manufactured in Myanmar although the substance is also illegal in that country.

Statistics from the Bangladesh's Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) show that yaba that come from Myanmar tops the list of smuggled drugs into Bangladesh.

DNC Director General Bazlur Rahman said earlier that his department had strengthened its monitoring of the country's 32 districts near the border with Myanmar and India. He said he has formed 15,000 committees to help raise awareness about yaba.

A DNC report showed that aside from yaba, addiction to marijuana in Bangladesh has also increased. The report is based on the records of drugs recovered from 2008 to 2013.

The report stated that the number of yaba tablets recovered on 2008 was 36,543; in 2009 it was 129,644; in 2010 was 812,716; in 2011 1,360,186; in 2012 1,951,392; and in 2013 2,821.528.

This shows that in comparison to 2008, the amount of Yaba recovered was 77 times of that in 2013. Endi