Seizure of Indian goods imported by evading customs duties, propaganda by a TV channel
October 5, 20242 Mins Read
Jumbangla Desk: On October 2nd, a private TV channel aired a report titled 'Allegations of harassing common people and institutions in the name of raid against some overzealous army personnel of Jhenaidah camp'.

Calling the report 'misleading and one-sided', the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said, 'This report appears to be an attempt to malign the image of the Bangladesh Army among the countrymen.'

According to an ISPR press release, intelligence information received from the Border Guard Bangladesh on October 1 revealed that a large amount of duty-evading Indian goods and cosmetics were being transported in a covered van (Dhaka Metro-U 14-2012) from Jessore via Magura to Dhaka.

In this context, when the covered van was stopped by a patrol team of the Bangladesh Army at Vaina intersection in Magura, it was found that the said covered van belonged to a parcel and courier service. When the driver and assistant of the covered van were asked to show the transported goods, they opened the door of the van and a large quantity of Indian sarees, toiletries and packaged food items were found in some suspicious sacks inside the van. At that time, the covered van was taken to the nearest army camp for detailed search when the driver and assistant failed to produce valid documents in favor of transporting a large quantity of Indian goods.

Then after a detailed search with the help of Jhenaidah Sadar Police, only those goods for which valid documents were not found were seized as illegal goods and included in the seizure list. Later, 2 representatives of the parcel and courier service company came to the army camp. But after failing to produce valid documents in favor of the seized goods, the duty evading goods were handed over to the Magura police station in legal proceedings. Legal action in this regard is ongoing.

It is to be noted that the operation has been conducted for the purpose of detaining foreign goods brought illegally by evading customs duty.

Although this operation of Bangladesh Army to recover a huge amount of duty evading Indian goods and cosmetics by Jhenaidah Army Camp was widely praised in various media, electronic media and print media, only the television channel owned by the said parcel and courier company aired the news with the intention of tarnishing the image of Bangladesh Army. .

ISPR has requested to show more responsible and professional attitude in future in disseminating news related to Bangladesh Army.