Rowmari yaba route rings alarm

In the last two years, Rowmari upazila of Kurigram -- which borders the northeastern Indian states of Assam and Meghalaya -- has emerged as a new gateway for yaba pills from Myanmar.

Narcotics rackets have been using Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Assam as the conduits before pushing consignments of yaba into Bangladesh through the Rowmari point, according to police and intelligence reports.

The law enforcers first came to know about the new route after Jamalpur district police recovered a consignment of 50,000 pills towards the beginning of 2019, immediate-past Jamalpur Superintendent of Police Delwar Hossain told The Daily Star.

Till June last year, 64,605 more yaba pills were seized in Jamalpur while being carried through the district, said the officer before he was transferred to CID weeks ago.

Police also arrested 37 yaba traffickers in Jamalpur -- 24 of whom were from Rowmari. The arrestees could only give names of the persons they received the consignment from and who they handed the pills over to.

Before 2019, there was hardly any recovery of yaba in the district, which borders Kurigram and India's Meghalaya in the north.

However, police sources also said seizure of yaba in Jamalpur came down significantly last year as police check posts and drives were withdrawn nationwide following the killing of Major (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan in Cox's Bazar on July 1, 2020.

Law enforcers suspect drug smuggling syndicates opened the new route in late 2018 to avoid Teknaf in Cox's Bazar -- previously the easiest gateway for yaba pills -- which is always under strict watch.

Law enforcers of late also stepped up vigilance on three other smuggling points -- Zakiganj in Sylhet, Madhyanagar and Tekerghat in Sunamganj, and Balla in Habiganj - through which yaba consignments enter from Myanmar via India's northeast.

An intelligence agency official working in Rowmari said the upazila has become the second largest yaba smuggling route after Teknaf.

"Since Rowmari is a riverine area, 90 percent of yaba pills smuggled through the point are carried by the river route to different destinations in Dhaka and its surrounding areas," he said, requesting anonymity.

THROWN OVER THE BORDER

The crazy pills, as they are also known, first enter Mizoram before being transported through hill roads to Meghalaya and Assam in cars, buses, or motorbikes.

After reaching Ampati district in Meghalaya and Dhubri district in Assam which border Kurigram, the consignments finally cross over into Bangladesh mainly through Rowmari.

Drug traffickers in India threw packets containing yaba pills over the barbed wire fences and their members in Bangladesh then collected these.

As both Indian and Bangladeshi SIMs work in both countries within one kilometre of the border, the traffickers communicated via mobile phones, said the intelligence agency official.

The drug traffickers arrested in Jamalpur also admitted that the pills also change hands during border haats as the border is open at those places, said a police officer.

Law enforcers said the traffickers send cash through hundi, an informal system for transferring money.

Then, the traffickers either carry the pills via the river route or come to Jamalpur town via Dewanganj and finally to different destinations in the capital.

Such consignments, which originate in Myanmar, take three to four days to reach the border areas along Kurigram. Syndicate members still prefer the route as they find it less risky with "no major checking on the Indian side", said police and intelligence agency officials.

The Rowmari route is more cost-effective, they added, as smugglers have to pay different drug lords at different points to bring in the pills through Teknaf.

A police officer also said some of the drug trafficking syndicate members in Rowmari have close links with an influential Awami League leader from Kurigram.

Asked about smuggling of yaba through the Rowmari border, Commanding Officer of 22 BGB Battalion Lt Col Muntasir Mamoon, however, said no such incident of smuggling had come to their notice.

In March last year, during a regular meeting of the Jamalpur deputy commissioner and superintendent of police with their counterparts in Meghalaya, the Bangladesh side raised their concerns.

"We requested our Indian counterparts to take steps against yaba smugglers in India," said Delwar Hossain.

Besides, the district police also informed Police Headquarters so that high-ups share these concerns with the Indian authorities.

Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed, during a visit to India in 2020, handed over a list of 18 yaba smugglers from the neighbouring country for action.