Dhaka, July 7 -- The government is formulating a new telecom policy to dismantle the syndicate of "autocrats and mafias" that has long gripped the country's internet and telecom sector, said Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Adviser to the Chief Adviser in charge of the Ministry of ICT and Telecommunications.

Speaking at an emergency press conference at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital on Sunday afternoon, Taiyeb said the sector remains under the influence of a vested group protected by past autocratic regimes.

"There are licensing systems in Bangladesh that don't exist anywhere else in the world. By exploiting these, syndicates and mafias have looted hundreds of crores of taka from the telecom sector," he said.

Taiyeb claimed that ...