A large quantity of illegal drugs has been seized in a raid in Chittagong’s biggest wholesale drug market, Hazari Gali.
The operation was carried out by the executive magistrate of the district administration, the officials of the drug administration department and the police from Tuesday afternoon to night. It was led by District Administration Executive Magistrate Prateek Dutta and Abdullah Al Mamun.
Pratik Dutt told bdnews24.com, “Initially, three organizations were fined a total of 80,000 rupees as physicians’ samples were obtained from three pharmacies namely Satta Pharmacy, Niamat Shah Pharmacy and Cal Pharma. Later, the physician samples were sent to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.”
After that, the raiding party went to the ‘Chabila Complex’ of Hazari Gully, where the owners of the pharmacy closed their shop and took a position on the road outside the market.
Despite requests from the market committee, pharmacy owners’ association and local leaders, the owners refused to open the shop. After that, more members of the police from Kotwali police station came and joined the operation.
Then the locks of one warehouse on the third floor and another on the fourth floor of the Pratla complex were broken. Unauthorized drugs worth about Tk 40 lakh were found in those two warehouses.
After the raid, Executive Magistrate Prateek Dutta said, “Basically these are foreign drugs (unregistered). Registration is required to sell in Bangladesh market. There is no registration number on the packaging of these medicines. Medicines mostly from India and Thailand.”
Unauthorized drugs are destroyed.
Prateek Dutta said, “The owners of the godown have not been found. They are being investigated. Legal action will be taken later.”