TURA: Recent seizure of over two thousand narcotic pills of the infamous drug “Ya Ba” from a smuggler by West Garo Hills police in the plain belt region of the district has made security forces to raise the alert level against attempts by narcotic smugglers to use the route to transport their illegal consignments.
While Phulbari police had, two months ago, seized from a motorcyclist the Ya Ba narcotic consignment at Rajpur village near Bhaitbari, a BSF patrol had, a week back, intercepted a similar consignment that smugglers were trying to take across by using the river route on the Brahmaputra in Dhubri area of neighbouring Assam.
The arrested smuggler in Phulbari had revealed to police that the consignment was brought over from Guwahati and was being taken to Mankachar town through the Garo Hills road for possible illegal export to Bangladesh.
The river route used by the arrested Dhubri smugglers also snakes its way through the Garo Hills waters.
The highly toxic Ya Ba narcotic is produced illegally in Myanmar (Burma) and smuggled into India and Bangladesh by narcotic smugglers for use by addicts and the high number of its illegal import into the country has become a matter of concern for law enforcement agencies.
Just days before, a consignment of YaBa tablets worth several lakh rupees in the black market was seized in the Khasi-Jaintia Hlils region itself.
There is apprehension that the rising number of recoveries indicate that smugglers are trying out new routes to export their narcotic consignments and also laying their eyes on the plain-belt region of Garo Hills which shares a long border with both Assam as well as Bangladesh.
Since Mankachar town is in close proximity to Bangladesh, separated by the border fencing, the only way to reach the frontier town is either through the river route or the road passing through Garo Hills plain belt.
“We are keeping a very strict vigil across the entire region and have also placed our sources at vulnerable points,” informed West Garo Hills police chief MGR Kumar.
In the light of the NRC data release in Assam and to check against any possible influx, Garo Hills police have put in place a series of security checks into the plains belt region, beginning from Rongsai in North Garo Hills which borders Assam all the way to ASimulkol junction that connects Selsella and Hallidayganj in the plain belt.
Police are optimistic that the heightened security detail will act as a deterrent against any future attempts by narcotic smugglers to foray into the Garo Hills areas.