Drug smuggling rampant thru' C'nawabganj border

Chapainawabganj border has become a safe route for drug smuggling and their dispatch to Dhaka and other areas of the country while the smugglers use poor people, mostly women and children, as low cost carriers.
An organised gang of smugglers, mostly from Alatuli, Shahjahanpur, Charbagdanga unions of Chapainawabganj Sadar upazila, dispatch drugs via Godagari upazila of Rajshahi to different places of the country, said locals and law enforcers.
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) recovered 5.5 kg of heroin, 500 grams of cocaine, 100 kg of hemp, 2,532 bottles containing 1,658 litres of liquor, 32,879 bottles of phensidyl and 4,795 contraband injections and arrested 169 drug traders in the area in last one year, said sources of BGB Chapainawabganj 39 Battalion.
The seized amount would be only a small fraction of smuggled drugs, said officials of BGB and other law enforcement agencies.
Most of the smuggled drugs are carried to different areas of the country by buses, goods-laden trucks and other transports from areas close to the border, they said.
Heroin traders mostly use bordering Alatuli, Shajahanpur and Charbagdanga unions of Sadar upazila as they are virtually isolated from the district headquarters by the Padma River in absence of any road links.
Phensidyl traders use Monaksha, Binodpur and Shabajpur unions of Shibganj upazila in Chapainawabganj.
Drug traders also carry phensidyl in imported goods-laden trucks at Sonamsjid land port area.
Poor people, mostly women and children, are used as carriers of the smuggled drugs, BGB sources said.
BGB members of Diar Manik Char camp arrested Joytsna, a housewife of Diar Manik Char area, and Taskira Khatun, a class eight student of Kodalkati High School in Sadar upazila, and recovered 500 grams of heroin from their possession at Godagari Rail Bazar on October 9 last year.
That time arrested Joytsna and Taskira told this correspondent at BGB Battalion headquarters in Chapainawabganj town that one Saiful Islam of Kodalkati village gave them four packets of heroin to hand it to one Kalu of Mohishalbari under Godagari upazila in Rajshahi.
They carried the heroin for Tk 800, they said.
Joysna said her husband died four years ago and she with her two sons has to struggle for survival amid extreme poverty.
With easy availability of different kinds of drugs, drug abuse has spread to villages in most border areas of Chapainawabganj district.
"People of the border areas are poor and so, traffickers can easily hire them as carriers. Mass awareness, strengthening security in the border areas and joint drives are needed to tackle the situation," said Lt Col Jahangir Hossain, commanding officer of 39 BGB Battalion.
"Every day 300 to 350 imported goods-laden trucks enter Sonamasjid land port from India. But we have no equipment for quickly detecting drugs in trucks. We need modern equipment for checking the goods-laden trucks," he said.
He also suggested launching a campaign by the administration, socio- cultural organisations and NGOs against the menace of drug abuse.
When contacted, officials in the Department of Narcotics Control in Chapainawabganj said their prime duty is to detect drugs and check their use inside the country but they have nothing to do with checking smuggling, which is the duty of law enforcers.