Terrorism thrives on smuggling: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday said terrorism is thriving on smuggling as there is a strong connection between the two offences.

 

“Terrorism has appeared as another alarming sign now as smuggling is strongly contributing towards its expansion. Organised crimes are behind smugglings across the world. That’s why we have to keep our boarder protected,” he said.

 

The minister was addressing a seminar titled ‘Countering Smuggling and Revenue Evasion at Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) Bhaban in the capital, reports UNB.

 

Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate arranged the seminar with International Resource Division (IRD) Secretary and Chairman of the National Board of Revenue Md Nojibur Rahman in the chair.

 

Muhith said the government’s goal is to run the customs administration in a business-friendly way by ensuring that people are not subjected to harassment there.

 

The present government has taken various measures over the last six years to reduce the public harassment and the government achieves some successes in this regard.

 

The minister said, “We’d long been cherishing a dream that there would be a free and border-less world in near future, where there would be no duty barrier towards traveling, but smuggling has gradually faded our dream. Now it has become almost impossible to think about a boarder-less world.”

 

Addressing the function, security expert Maj Gen (retd) Md Abdur Rashid also said, “A nexus among smugglers, organised criminal and terrorist groups has developed posing a high risk for Bangladesh.”

 

Bangladesh faces the risk of international smuggling network as the country’s location is in between the two main illicit opium-producing areas, the ‘Golden Crescent’ and the ‘Golden Triangle’, he said.

 

If we can asses how much Bangladesh can be used as transit for opium smuggling, we’ll be able to check it,” he said adding the opium of the Golden Crescent, located among three countries-- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran-- is largely supplied to Europe, while that of the Golden Triangle, located among Myanmar, Laos and Thailand-- largely goes to America.

 

“The size of seized gold indicates-- what is the demand of gold and how much gold is being smuggled into the country. The size of seized goods may vary between 10 percent and 20 percent of the total smuggled goods. It is not all of the smuggled goods,” Rashid said.

 

Noting that there is an investment of four billion dollars in cow smuggling between Bangladesh and India, he said fundamentalist and militant groups are investing here.

 

Professor of International Relations at Dhaka University Delwar Hossain said Bangladesh faces a great threat because of smuggling and militancy.

 

“Criminal groups are now more integrated taking advantage of the globalization. Bangladesh has to face the issue effectively considering the local and global contexts,” he said.

 

There is a nexus between criminals and terrorists. Smuggling is being used as source of terrorism financing, he said.

 

To prevent smuggling and revenue evasion, Bangladesh needs to strengthen sharing of intelligence between government agencies, engage the business community in the enforcement of drives, and to go on automated and digitalized system, the DU professor suggested.

 

President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Abdul Matlub Ahmad said many phensedyl factories have been set up along border areas, which is root cause of drug smuggling into Bangladesh.

 

He said Bangladesh has to address the root causes with initiatives to remove the factories along the border.

 

State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan and Senior Secretary of the Home Ministry Dr Md Mozammel Haque Khan also spoke on the occasion. Director General of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate Dr Mainul Khan presented the keynote paper.