BSF Frontier of Mizoram & Cachar seizes drugs worth over Rs 47 crore in 2021, apprehends 11 Bangladeshis

According to the BSF, during the year 2021, Mizoram & Cachar Frontier seized 340 cattle heads, 6,13,496 Yaba tablets, 480 kg of ganja, 149.84 kg of opium, 1.9 kg of heroin, 609 grams of Brown Sugar, 1,569 bottles IMFL, 43,900 packets of foreign cigarettes.

“In last year, BSF personnel had seized six Pistol with four magazines and four rounds of ammunition, 459 kg of Hilsa Fish, Indian Currency Rs 65,39,773, Bangladesh Currency Taka 2,55,250 and other contraband items with a total value of Rs 47.48 crore. During the period, BSF personnel apprehended 78 Indian nationals, 11 Bangladeshi nationals and one Myanmar national involved in various criminal, smuggling activities. Seizure of cattle, Yaba, heroin, Brown Sugar and ganja have increased manifold in the year 2021 as compared to 2020,” Mridul Sonowal IG of BSF Frontier Mizoram and Cachar said.

He further said that most of the seizures have been made in the hinterland by the BSF independently as well as in coordination with sister agencies i.e. Police, DRI, NCB, Narcotics and Excise Department and other sister agencies.

“In the light of the recent Gazette Notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Oct 11, 2021 regarding extension of BSF’s jurisdiction, the BSF personnel can now exercise the powers conferred upon them upto 50 km of area in Assam from IB in place of earlier 15 km. To secure the border and to instil a sense of security among the border population and to contain cross border crimes, presently, operations alert exercise also in progress,” the BSF IG said.

He further said that amidst the lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the BSF Mizoram & Cachar Frontier joined hands with all stakeholders particularly local administration to run various awareness programmes to educate the border population besides providing them essential commodities including food, ration, potable water, hand sanitisers, masks etc.

“It has always been the endeavour of Mizoram and Cachar Frontier BSF to reach out to the needy border population with the help of its border deployed Battalions amid challenging circumstances of lockdown due to COVID-19.  In the series of programmes,  1 Bn BSF, 7 Bn BSF and 134 Bn BSF of Sector Silchar distributed food and ration to the needy people of the border area which included Food packets, Rice, Potatoes, Edible oil, Pulses, Wheat flour, Onion, Salt etc. and ready to eat food in Nathanpur, Mahadevpur, Harinagar, Leverputta and Bhanga BOPs area. Also, such programmes were conducted in Mizoram, Manipur as well as in Nagaland and extended all help to needy people during the pandemic situation,” Sonowal said.

He also said that BSF is maintaining a good relationship with BGB and the level of trust and friendship has enhanced.

“Coy Comdr level and Commandant Level Flag meetings are held regularly. Besides this , Sector Commander Level  Conferences and Inspector General (BSF) and Region Commanders (BGB) Level Conferences are also held between the two Border Guarding Forces at regular intervals to resolve the border issues of both sides. Both the Forces are also carrying out Simultaneous Coordinated Patrollings and Joint Patrollings to check and deter the trans border crimes/ criminals along the Indo-Bangladesh Border,” the IG of BSF said.

The Mizoram and Cachar Frontier BSF is manning 475.869  km (riverine border -334.739 km and land border 141.130 km) along Indo-Bangladesh border in South Assam and Mizoram with two sectors – Silchar sector and Aizawl sector.