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THE seizure of powerful explosive materials that were sent to Rajshahi from Sylhet by courier service last week should not be taken lightly. The recovered items included one kilogram of RDX explosives, 500 grams of ammonia, and 500 grams of sulphur. Police said these are enough to manufacture several hundred powerful bombs.
Here we must praise our police personnel for their good and intelligent job. This is a good bit of news.
But the bad news is that neither the recipient nor the sender could be caught so far except some of their employees.
It seems to us that the terrorists are now using courier services to send explosives from one part of the country to another. The courier service people themselves need to seriously think about adopting some safety measures, both for their own sake, and for the nation as a whole.
The courier service industry has grown and done well over the last few years. However, there is no reason why it cannot add precautions to its handling of packages similar to measures in place elsewhere in the world.
The courier service providers must be well equipped to identify bad things in their parcels. Use of metal detectors and perhaps even trained dogs to detect explosives or other contrabands should be in place immediately. The employees must be trained to detect suspicious packages.
Finally, there should be more stringent confirmation of the identity of both sender and recipient before a parcel is sent out. Otherwise, the courier service would soon become dangerous which no one wants.
Aref Khan
Dhanmandi,
Dhaka
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