Coast guard gun battles drug smugglers in Bay of Bengal, almost 12 lakh yaba pills seized

Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard today recovered around 12 lakh yaba tablets after a gunfight with alleged drug smugglers in the Bay of Bengal in Teknaf upazila of Cox's Bazar early today.

However no arrests could be made during or after the gun battle, said Lt Commander M Nayeemul Haque, commander of Bangladesh Coast Guard in Teknaf station at a press conference this evening.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of coast guard launched a drive in the south-east sea area adjacent to Chhera Dwip near Saint Martin's Island around 2pm, reports our Cox's Bazar staff correspondent quoting the official.

During the drive, the coast guard team signaled a fishing trawler to stop as its movement seemed suspicious, he said.

Disregarding the signal, the suspected criminals on the trawler suddenly fired at the coast guard members. In retaliation, the coast guard troops fired back, triggering a gunfight between them.

At one stage, the yaba smugglers left the trawler and swam towards Myanmar territory when the coast guard members chased them.

Later, the coast guard found 11,95,600 yaba pills, 30 rounds of bullets, two magazines, and a foreign sub-machine gun after searching the trawler.

The seized yaba pills, bullets, arms, and magazines were handed over to the Teknaf Model Police Station, added the Lt commander.