State Minister Ishraque explains why he took part in anti-narcotics raid with firearms

Ishraque Hossain, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs, has explained his participation in an anti-narcotics operation in Gandaria, in the capital, and his decision to carry a firearm.

He said he had visited the area on Saturday as part of a coordinated social resistance initiative against drugs, involving local residents and law enforcement agencies. According to him, the operation was a joint undertaking agreed upon by police, local politicians and community leaders. He said he had raised the firearm in self-defence.

The incident took place near Gandaria Railway Station in Dhaka-6 constituency on Saturday afternoon. A video of the incident was posted on the Facebook page of Ishraque, the Member of Parliament for the constituency, and quickly went viral, prompting widespread discussion and criticism.

Several media outlets subsequently reported on the incident. On Sunday afternoon, Ishraque issued a statement on his verified Facebook page explaining his position.

The video of the anti-narcotics operation posted on Ishraque Hossain’s Facebook page had the image of the pistol blurred. However, the firearm was clearly visible in some sections of the footage.

According to the statement, since assuming office as the elected representative for Dhaka-6, Ishraque had received repeated complaints about drug dealing in Ghantighar, Munshitek, Koratitola and surrounding areas of Gandaria.

According to the statement, local residents had also raised specific concerns with him about the spread of drug use among students at educational institutions. In the aftermath of the 2024 mass uprising, the area had become one of the principal transit points for drug syndicates, the statement claimed.

Following a drug-related violent incident in June, in which three innocent civilians were shot and wounded, Ishraque visited the area and held several coordination meetings with senior law enforcement officials. He also sent a demi-official (DO) letter to the relevant police station requesting measures to address the shortage of personnel and establish a permanent police outpost near the drug dens. The proposal, however, remains under consideration for implementation.

The statement further said that, most recently, Ishraque had visited the area as part of a coordinated social resistance initiative involving members of the public and law enforcement agencies, following a joint decision by police, local political figures and community leaders.

According to the statement, before the visit, Ishraque had been warned by law enforcement agencies and his own intelligence sources of potential security threats, including the possibility of sudden gunfire from rooftops by drug dealers.

During the operation, as the group approached a makeshift drug den, between 30 and 35 alleged lawbreakers suddenly began shouting and advanced aggressively towards their motorcade, the statement claimed.

In the statement, Ishraque said, “Under these circumstances, in view of the specific threat of an attack and the need to protect lives and property, I and my government security personnel got out of the vehicles and raised our firearms in self-defence for a very brief period. As soon as the potential threat of an untoward incident had passed, the firearm was immediately put away. The firearm in question is duly licensed by the competent authority, and its display was undertaken solely for the purpose of self-defence and within the framework of the law.”

The statement added that Gandaria police station was informed shortly after the group arrived at the scene. Subsequently, joint operations were conducted at suspected drug dens in the direct presence of, and with assistance from, the police.

During the operation, four to five illegal and makeshift drug dens were dismantled. Heroin or heroin-like narcotics, foreign liquor, drug-use paraphernalia, several locally made sharp weapons, cash believed to have been generated from drug sales, and mobile phones reported to have been snatched were seized from the sites.

Six suspected drug dealers were detained in connection with the offences and handed over to Gandaria police, along with the seized evidence, the statement said.

In his statement, Ishraque said that a handful of media outlets, including Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, The Daily Ittefaq and Daily Kalbela, had unfortunately published misinformation and distorted reports based on incomplete information and photo cards, driven by what he described as excessive zeal.

He alleged that these distorted, false and entirely fabricated reports had deliberately overlooked the operation’s achievements, the role of the police, the recovery of drugs and weapons, and the detention of six offenders. He further accused the outlets of attempting to mislead both the government and the public.

According to Ishraque, the outlets had focused exclusively on the isolated image of a “state minister conducting a raid with a firearm”, promoting it through sensational headlines—a practice he said was contrary to the principles of independent and objective journalism.

He added that videos, photo cards and headlines focusing on a few seconds of a sensitive incident cannot assess the wider context. He alleged that such coverage was an attempt to deliberately create public confusion about his role and intentions.

Ishraque urged the media to verify the accuracy of reports and publish them with their full context.

The state minister also reiterated the government’s “zero-tolerance” policy towards drugs. He said that completely dismantling drug dens and making Dhaka-6 free of drugs were among his principal commitments to the public.

He maintained that the social movement taking shape against drugs would not be brought to a halt by the selective and allegedly deliberate portrayal of a single incident. The operation, he said, would continue in the public interest.