Angry traders lay siege protesting at phone set seizure

Infuriated by raiding of handset shops by customs officials, mobile phone shop owners and their sales persons blocked the Panthapath road in front of of Bashundhara City shopping mall on Saturday evening.

The Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) officials seized around 100 sets claiming that they were imported without paying duties.

Denying such allegations, the desperate traders and salespersons laid a siege at the Panthapath road and stopped the CIID officials from leaving the market, said witnesses.

A meeting between the businessmen and the officials was underway when this report was filed at 9:30pm.

News agency UNB adds: A team comprising of customs intelligence, revenue officials, Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police started over three-hour long raid simultaneously at different spots from 11:00am.

Apart from the shopping malls, the team conducted a drive at a house in Mohakhali DOHS area and seized machineries and illegal parts for making fake iphone sets, UNB reports quoting a press release on Saturday.

A total of nine miscreants, seven from Mohakhali and two from Uttara were arrested on charges of making or selling illegal or fake mobile phone sets.

After the drive director general of CIID Md Shahidul Islam said the government has been losing huge amount of duty due to sale of these unauthorised mobile sets, which mostly enters the country through personal baggage. These illegal phone sets are not recorded in BTRC files, he said.

"We will show zero tolerance to check selling of illegal mobile phone sets. We are committed to bring the syndicate of illegal mobile phone sellers and makers under legal action," he added.

He said the government will not allow selling any unauthorized illegal mobile phone sets in Bangladesh market. "Our drive will be continuing regularly in the coming days," he also said.