Bangladesh Army officer caught with banned drug

DHAKA - A Bangladesh Army officer, returning from India after medical treatment, has been caught with bottles of a banned medicinal drug.

Major Shabbir Ahmed Bipu, posted at Chittagong Cantonment, was nabbed by police Sunday in Faridpur district in central Bangladesh with three bottles of a cough syrup commonly known as Phensidyl. He was handed over to the military police in Jessore Cantonment, New Age reported Tuesday.

Quoting sources, the newspaper said Bipu was returning from India via Benapol border checkpoint after having medical treatment there.

In July this year, Major Reza Shah Mohammad Zillullah of the Army Engineering Corps and his cousin were detained by the police at the western end of Bangabandhu Bridge with at least 780 bottles of smuggled Phensidyl.

A military court dismissed Major Reza Sep 1 and also handed him one-year rigorous imprisonment in civil jail on charge of carrying drugs.

The syrup contains opium-based codeine as one of its main ingredients. The use of codeine is banned in Bangladesh.

Thousands of bottles of the syrup are smuggled into Bangladesh from India, the report said.