Staff Reporter :
Traders at Bashundhara city shopping mall in Dhaka on Saturday confined customs intelligence officials for seizing ‘illegally’ imported mobile handsets from their shops.
Officials of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) earlier in the morning seized 262 unauthorized handsets worth Tk 2.9 crore in drives in the city’s different markers, including Bashundhara city shopping mall, led by its Additional Director General Kazi Md Ziauddin.
They conducted the raid at the mall around 12:00pm with the help of Rapid Action Battalion and seized the phone sets of different brands, including 100 iPhone sets.
Soon after the raid, around 500 shop owners and their employees confined the customs officials for more than one and a half hours as the sudden drive caused huge resentment among them.
The agitated traders also took to the Panthapath road blocking traffic movement from 12pm to 3pm.
When the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrived on the scene to bring the situation under control, the traders exchanged angry words with the elite force.
Later, the customs officials held a meeting with the traders. After one and a half hours of discussion, the customs officials left the shopping mall around 5:30pm.
After the meeting, Ziauddin said he was leaving the shopping mall with 64 mobile phone sets. Next step will be taken after verifying necessary papers of the phone stets, he added.
He also said that they raided the Bashundhara market as per the law. The mobile sets will be returned after scrutinising the necessary documents.”
Mufazzal Hossain Mamun, proprietor of RM Trading International, said: “The customs officials have taken away mobile phones worth millions of Taka without any notice and they raided shops without informing the local police.”
Ujjal Hossain, owner of Usha Telecom, said: “They have taken away Tk 2.0 crore worth of goods from five shops. They have taken iPhones. During this time, they do not want to know about other mobile phones.”
Md Nazimuddin, an agitated trader, said, “If mobile phones are being sold illegally, they can take action against them. But before every Eid, the customs officials come here and harass the businessmen. They took the mobile phones and never returned.” Business can’t go this way.