Additional DIG relieved of duties after police detain 85 in raid on his house

Additional Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdullah Al Zahir has been relieved of his duties after police raided a house owned by him in the Vatara police station area of the capital, seized various drugs and detained 85 people.

Abdullah Al Zahir was working in the Maintenance and Repair section of Police Headquarters. He has been withdrawn from that post and attached to Police Headquarters.

The information was announced in an office order signed by Mohammad Sharif Uddin, additional DIG (Confidential) at Police Headquarters, on Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier, around midnight on Monday, a team from the Detective Branch’s Uttara division raided the three-storey house in the Police Housing-1 residential area.

The DB said illegal drug use and a DJ party were taking place there. According to DB sources, police seized cannabis, yaba tablets, alcohol and equipment used to consume yaba during the raid.

Additional Commissioner (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police Shafiqul Islam said the additional DIG had rented out the house through an online platform. The tenants had been using the property for drug-related activities, he added.

Of the 85 people detained, 26 are women. The detainees will be tried and punished through the legal process, Shafiqul Islam said.