Staff Reporter:
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed said yesterday the government is establishing modern cyber security units and specialized laboratories across all divisional headquarters alongside the Police Headquarters, DMP, and the Detective Branch (DB) in response to the rapid evolution of digital offenses.
Speaking at the 43rd anniversary event of the Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh (CRAB) at its DRU office in Segunbagicha yesterday, the minister emphasized that digitalization has fun-damentally altered criminal activity, driving a substantial portion of offenses into cyberspace.
Yesterday, law enforcement heavily relies on digital forensics, location tracking, and electronic de-vice analysis—not only to investigate crimes but also to compile admissible evidence for court charge sheets.
Under the planned infrastructure, district-level cyber security units will be established with dedi-cated officers, he said.
Police stations at the sub-district (upazila) and local (thana) levels will draw technical support di-rectly from these district and divisional facilities, he said.
Addressing the rise of transnational organized crime, the minister highlighted that cyber scams, digital extortion, and fraudsters impersonating law enforcement now represent a major share of global offenses
The new decentralized security architecture is designed to bolster defense against both local and cross-border criminal networks.
Additionally, to tackle online betting and cyber-enabled financial crimes that fell outside the scope of the legacy 1867 Gambling Act, the government has enacted modern legislation introducing stricter penalties and targeted legal definitions.
CRAB President Mirza Mehdi Tamal chaired the programme. Parliament member Shafiqul Islam Masud, DMP Commissioner Mosleh Uddin Ahmed and Prime Minister’s Assistant (Political), with the rank of secretary, Md Rashed Khan, also spoke.
CRAB General Secretary M M Badshah moderated the programme.
The speakers highly praised CRAB’s 43-year contribution and expressed hope that it would contin-ue its tradition of objective journalism.
