India has assured Bangladesh to take steps to stop cross-border smuggling of yaba tablets. The assurance came during director general (DG)-level talks between the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Border Security Force (BSF) of India yesterday. The five-day talks began at the BGB’s Pilkhana headquarters yesterday. BGB DG Maj. Gen. Abul Hosaain led the Bangladeshi delegation, while his BSF counterpart KK Sharma headed the Indian side.
During the meeting, the BSF claimed that there were no yaba factories in India. All the seized contraband tablets originated in Myanmar and smuggled into Bangladesh via the Indo-Bangla border, the BSF said.
Contrary to the BSF claim, Dr Dulal Krishna Saha, chief chemical examiner at the Department of Narcotics Control, had earlier told The Independent that there were nine yaba factories in India. Saha had come across the information while undergoing training at the National Academy of Customs Excise and Narcotics last year.
According to sources present in the meeting, the Indian paramilitary officers said that the smuggling of yaba was also a matter of concern for them and BSF men had recently seized at least 20,000 tablets produced in Myanmar.
“If we do not stop the smuggling of yaba, it will harm our (Indian) youngsters,” a source said quoting a BSF officer. On their part, the Bangladeshi officers said the BGB had seized at least 14,000 yaba tablets at the Benapole border point in the past two months.
The sources further said the BSF offered to train the BGB’s dog squad to curb cross-border terrorism. The Indian officers also urged their Bangladeshi counterparts to continue with joint border patrolling under the Coordinated Border Management Plan (CBMP) between the two countries.
The BSF offered to provide scholarships for medical and engineering studies for the children of BGB men, the sources said. In the meeting, Dhaka urged New Delhi to stop border killings, and the BSF assured that they will bring it to zero. The BGB also raised the issues of drugs and arms smuggling, pushing back of Bangladeshis and the construction of fences within 150 yards of the international boundary.  On their part, the BSF sought the BGB’s help in curbing the smuggling of fake Indian currency notes, the sources said.
Bangladesh and India share a 4,096-km-long border, the world’s fifth longest land border, including 262 km in Assam, 856 km in Tripura, 180 km in Mizoram, 443 km in Meghalaya, and 2,217 km in West Bengal on the Indian side. Sources said 33 border districts, including 10 coastal ones, in Bangladesh were vulnerable to smuggling. More than 50 categories of Bangladeshi goods were smuggled into India daily through border check points in these areas.