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Chief says proposal okayed by PM, sent to home ministry
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is set to open an air wing to combat trans-border crime, primarily trafficking of drugs with a special emphasis on Yaba, through patches of an around 400 kilometre-stretch of unfenced, unguarded and nearly inaccessible border with Myanmar and India in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
“We already sent the proposal to the home ministry last week,” BGB Director General Brig Gen Aziz Ahmed told journalists yesterday emerging from Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban after attending the second meeting of a sub-committee the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs formed.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the verbal go-ahead during a meeting with him at the Prime Minister's Office in the third week of last month, he said, adding that intrusion of Yaba from Myanmar was now Bangladesh's biggest threat.
A BGB source said trafficking of drugs, especially Yaba, through the stretch, where road connectivity is virtually non-existent, increased sevenfold in the last four years, bringing about the decision.
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) statistics puts Yaba from Myanmar at the top of the list of smuggled drugs, seconded by Phensedyl from India.
The paramilitary force chief said initially they proposed buying four helicopters for the wing, which would have around 300 personnel.
“In the unguarded border stretch there will be new 107 BGB camps and of them 72 which are located in hard to reach areas will be heli-supported ones,” he said.
Smugglers shifted to the stretch as law enforcers intensified patrols on the much-talked-about Naf river route, he said, adding that several lakh Yaba tablets and illegal aphrodisiacs had already been smuggled taking advantage of the adverse geographical location.
The DNC statistics say over eight lakh Yaba tablets were seized in 2010 and over 59 lakh in the first 11 months of 2014.
The DNC officials say the recovery figure is only a tenth of the total number of Yaba tablets being smuggled into the country.
Meanwhile, over nine lakh bottles of Phensedyl were seized in 2010 while the number decreased to around six lakh till November of 2014, state the DNC figures.
source: BGB to open air wing to curb cross-border crimes | Chief says proposal okayed by PM, sent to home ministry
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) is set to open an air wing to combat trans-border crime, primarily trafficking of drugs with a special emphasis on Yaba, through patches of an around 400 kilometre-stretch of unfenced, unguarded and nearly inaccessible border with Myanmar and India in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
“We already sent the proposal to the home ministry last week,” BGB Director General Brig Gen Aziz Ahmed told journalists yesterday emerging from Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban after attending the second meeting of a sub-committee the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs formed.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the verbal go-ahead during a meeting with him at the Prime Minister's Office in the third week of last month, he said, adding that intrusion of Yaba from Myanmar was now Bangladesh's biggest threat.
A BGB source said trafficking of drugs, especially Yaba, through the stretch, where road connectivity is virtually non-existent, increased sevenfold in the last four years, bringing about the decision.
The Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) statistics puts Yaba from Myanmar at the top of the list of smuggled drugs, seconded by Phensedyl from India.
The paramilitary force chief said initially they proposed buying four helicopters for the wing, which would have around 300 personnel.
“In the unguarded border stretch there will be new 107 BGB camps and of them 72 which are located in hard to reach areas will be heli-supported ones,” he said.
Smugglers shifted to the stretch as law enforcers intensified patrols on the much-talked-about Naf river route, he said, adding that several lakh Yaba tablets and illegal aphrodisiacs had already been smuggled taking advantage of the adverse geographical location.
The DNC statistics say over eight lakh Yaba tablets were seized in 2010 and over 59 lakh in the first 11 months of 2014.
The DNC officials say the recovery figure is only a tenth of the total number of Yaba tablets being smuggled into the country.
Meanwhile, over nine lakh bottles of Phensedyl were seized in 2010 while the number decreased to around six lakh till November of 2014, state the DNC figures.
source: BGB to open air wing to curb cross-border crimes | Chief says proposal okayed by PM, sent to home ministry
