The sale of contraband Indian drugs like phensedyl, hemp, heroin, and yaba is going on unabated in the Kushtia district.
Various drugs were smuggled into the country from India, targeting the Pahela Boishakh.
Officials of the Department of Narcotics Control and other sources informed that smuggling of phensedyl into the country from India increased alarmingly in the last month allegedly due to lax border vigilance.
More than 30-32 types of narcotics and contraband items poured in through 15-16 points along the 135-kilometre-long frontier with India. Of it, 65 kilometres is waterway.
The contraband items are carried by push and buffalo carts, vans, and rickshaws or by boats from border points to the houses of ‘Mahajans’ or smuggler ring leaders. Those are then carried to markets by women and adolescents packed in gunny bags, according to sources.
Meanwhile, the items are transported by local passenger buses and trucks and are unloaded at different bus terminals. According to sources, phensedyl factories have been set up across the frontiers inside Indian territory to push the drug into Bangladesh.
The officials of the Narcotics Control Department said that they cannot cope with the growing number of narcotics-related criminal activities and smuggling on the border due to manpower and logistic shortages and lack of coordination with other law-enforcement agencies.
On the other hand, the people of Daulatpur upazila alleged that some police members sold out seized contraband items to the smugglers.
The conscious people of the district urged the authorities concerned to take immediate measures to stop the menace. (Source: Amar Health)