Members of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) arrested a Rohingya man and seized 330,000 Yaba tablets in separate anti-narcotics operations along the Ghumdhum border in Naikhongchhari upazila of Bandarban.
The arrestee was identified as Bashir Ahmed, 50, a Rohingya resident of Balukhali Camp-09 in Ukhia. He is the son of Abu Siddique.
BGB’s Cox’s Bazar Battalion (34 BGB) conducted the operations in Ghumdhum and Baishfari border areas under Ghumdhum Union.
According to BGB, at around 5:30 am on Saturday, a patrol team from the Ghumdhum BOP carried out a special operation based on intelligence information at Kankra Bridge, about 1.1 kilometres inside Bangladesh from Border Pillar-31.
During the raid, the team arrested Bashir Ahmed with 80,000 Yaba pills.
Earlier, on Thursday night at around 9:40 pm, another patrol team from the Baishfari BOP conducted a separate operation at a bamboo grove area, about 200 yards inside Bangladesh from Border Pillar-36.
The team recovered 250,000 Yaba pills in an abandoned condition. No one was arrested in that operation.
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The total seizure from the two operations stood at 330,000 Yaba pills.
Confirming the incident, Cox’s Bazar Battalion Commander Lt Col SM Khairul Alam said BGB remains committed not only to guarding the border but also to preventing drug trafficking and smuggling.
“Such operations will continue in the future,” he said.
BGB said legal action is underway to hand over the arrested Rohingya man along with the seized Yaba pills to police, following the filing of a case under existing laws.