Yaba smuggled in through newer, easier routes

A report in this daily reveals how yaba pills are continuing to be smuggled into Bangladesh, with the drug traders finding new and cheaper gateways in the country. With Teknaf (the regular entry point) recently being in the spotlight, the drug smugglers have now made Rowmari upazila of Kurigram their preferred entry point. Police and intelligence reports have found that yaba pills come from Myanmar and enter through the Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya.

The law enforcers discovered this new route after Jamalpur district police recovered 50,000 pills in early 2019. By June, another 64,605 yaba pills were recovered, indicating the ease with which these drug traders operate. More smuggling points have been discovered by law enforcers in Sylhet, Sunamganj and Habiganj, with all the pills coming via India's northeast from Myanmar.

The reports show how organised the operations are, with the pills being carried in cars, buses or motorbikes from Myanmar to Meghalaya, and reaching the border in Kurigram. From there, drug traffickers in India throw packets of yaba pills over the barbed wire fences and their Bangladeshi members collect them. From Rowmari, 90 percent of the pills are carried by the river route and distributed to different destinations in Dhaka and surrounding areas.

It is easy to see that there are many weak points in our checkpoints that allow such ease of trafficking. Clearly, we need India's cooperation in stopping the drugs from coming into Bangladesh. According to police and intelligence officials, drug syndicate members prefer the new route as there is no major checking from the Indian side.

There are allegations that syndicate members have close links with an influential leader from Kurigram. Surprisingly, a BGB high-up has said that they had not come across any such smuggling incident. All this is quite shocking and highlights how little is being done to stop the incursion of yaba through these lesser known routes. If the police and intelligence agencies know about it, how come the BGB doesn't have a clue?

Although senior officials of Jamalpur police have raised their concerns regarding the drug smuggling with their counterparts from Meghalaya, no real action has been taken. Even the Inspector General of Police, during a visit to India last year, handed a list of 18 yaba smugglers (from India) to the Indian authorities. Have the Indian authorities taken any steps to catch these smugglers?

Trade in drugs has flourished thanks to corrupt elements in the security forces on both sides of the border. In Bangladesh, it seems those with political links are also involved. While our government must take steps to catch the smugglers and their patrons and enablers within the country, there have to be concerted efforts to stop the traffickers before they cross the border. This requires close cooperation and political will of Bangladesh and India, and calls for representatives of home ministries of both countries to meet and chalk out an effective strategy to combat this scourge.