IN the last two years, the 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 to Bangladesh. Narcotics rackets have been using Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Assam as the passages before pushing consignments of yaba into Bangladesh through the Rowmari point. The law enforcers first came to know about the new route after the Jamalpur district police recovered a consignment of 50,000 yaba pills towards the beginning of 2019.
In June last year, 64,605 more yaba pills were seized in Jamalpur while being carried through the district. Police also arrested 37 yaba traffickers in Jamalpur. The seizure of yaba in Jamalpur came down significantly last year as police check posts and drives were withdrawn nationwide following the killing of Major (retd) Sinha Md Rashed Khan in Cox’s Bazar on July 1, 2020.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 that 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. 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.
The crazy pills first enter Mizoram before being transported through hilly 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 to Bangladesh mainly through Rowmari. Drug traffickers in India throw packets containing yaba pills over the barbed wire fences and their agents in Bangladesh then collect those for internal distribution through different networks. The drug traffickers arrested in Jamalpur also admitted that the pills change hands at border haats as the border is open at those places.
The Rowmari route is more cost-effective for smugglers as they have to pay different drug lords at different points to bring in the pills through Teknaf. Bangladesh has requested our Indian counterparts at borders to take steps against yaba smugglers in India. The district police have also informed Police Headquarters so that high-ups share these concerns with the Indian authorities.
