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NSI conducts raid beyond brief

STAR REPORT
The National Security Intelligence (NSI) on Wednesday acted beyond its brief and 'arrested' 37 foreign currency dealers in an unprecedented raid to flush out 'the illegal trading'.
The home ministry was aware of the incident as verbal complaints were lodged with it.
"Arresting anyone or conducting a raid is not the function of the NSI," said a top official of the ministry," adding, "We are trying to find out what was the motive for this kind of act."
The NSI is mandated only to gather information on state security matters.This is for the first time the NSI
carried out a raid and arrested people, sources said.
They said some 30 NSI personnel, along with policemen and officials of the Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC), swooped on currency traders on Wednesday afternoon.
The detainees, carrying foreign currency, were then taken to the NSI office on mysterious grounds.
About one hundred people including the relatives and friends of the arrestees, were seen milling around the NSI office that evening.
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The NSI released 20 of the currency dealers and sent the rest to the Motijheel Police Station later on Wednesday night, sources said.
They alleged that a section of unscrupulous officials and employees of the NSI released the 20 raising a number of questions.
Immediately after the raid, some NSI staff told The Daily Star unofficially that foreign currency equivalent to about taka one crore was found with the dealers. But in the case lodged with Motijheel police it was shown that 17 persons were held with about Tk 25 lakh.
Talking to The Daily Star an NSI official admitted arresting the dealers saying, "A section of the police has been protecting these illegal dealers taking bribes regularly. We had to do something (to stop it)."
Commenting on the incident yesterday, a BAC official said, "We were misinformed and wrongly sent along with the NSI."
"We don't have the mandate to make such a raid unless we have a specific case and approval of the Bangladesh Bank to deal with such a money-related matter," he told The Daily Star.
The issue dragged the NSI into a controversy, said a home ministry official. "Till now, the organisation had a clean image," he said.