Drug smuggling goes on thru' Lalmonirhat border

Smuggling of huge Indian drugs through the border in Lalmonirhat district has continued, despite recurring drives with redrawn strategies by different law enforcement agencies especially Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
Authorities destroyed huge drugs worth about Tk 1 crore 9 lakh on the premises of Lalmonirhat Government College in the town yesterday.
The drugs including 4,289 bottles of wine, 7,772 bottles of phensidyl and 3,083 kg of hemp worth about Tk 1 crore 9 lakh were seized in border areas of Lalmonirhat at different times.
Marking International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking yesterday, the district administration and the Narcotics Control Department jointly arranged a procession in the town and later a discussion held in the hall room of Lalmonirhat Government College.
Strong syndicates of drug smugglers bring drugs including phensidyl, hemp, wine, even heroin, through 22 border points in five upazilas of the district from the neighbouring country and then these are supplied to different parts of the country by buses, trucks, trains, microbuses, pick-ups and ambulances.
Border areas of Durgapur in Aditmari upazila and Mogholhat in Sadar upazila are serving as safe zones for drug smugglers, locals said.
Smugglers usually prefer the routes in different border areas of Lalmonirhat as a few rivers there make the task easy, said narcotics officials.
Seeking anonymity, BGB officials said a large number of factories in Indian territories along India-Bangladesh border produce huge phensidyl and supply it to Bangladesh.
During talks with their Indian counterparts, Bangladesh authorities on several occasions handed over to them lists of such phensidyl factories with request to destroy them.
But phensidyl production on the other side of the border is going on in full swing.
Admitting rampant drug smuggling from India, Subedar Nurul Islam, commander of Durgapur BGB camp in Aditmari upazila, said proper patrolling in the entire border area is not possible due to shortage of manpower.
Commenting the same, Mogholhat BGB camp commander Nayek Subedar Khademul Islam said the law enforcers have zero tolerance about drug smuggling.