Dhaka, May 20 -- Joint Secretary Md Khairul Alam, the coordinator of the National Tobacco Control Cell under the Directorate General of Health Services, sent a letter to the industries ministry on Tuesday.

The letter appears to have made public a rift between the two ministries over allowing tobacco products during the respiratory illness pandemic.

The industries ministry made the situation "complex" by giving special permission to the tobacco firms to continue production, supply and marketing of their products amid the coronavirus lockdown, the letter said.

The tobacco firms were showing the permission as "an excuse to violate the lockdown rules", it said.

It requested the ministry to withdraw the permission, noting that Prime Minist...