According to BSF officials, most of the smuggling along the India Bangladesh border takes place through the South Bengal Frontier.

Notwithstanding the lockdown and sealing of the international border along West Bengal and Bangladesh in response to the coroanvirus pandemic, miscreants across the India Bangladesh border are still actively smuggling Phensedyl, narcotics and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN).

On Friday, guards at the Border Security Force’s (BSF) Dayarampur outpost, who hitherto knew that narcotics could be found inside vehicles and clothes, had the new experience of seizing several bottles of Phensedyl hidden under cooked khichdi.

Several arrested

In the past two weeks, the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF has seized more than 6,000 units of Phensedyl, a cough syrup usually smuggled from India to Bangladesh, in at least ten cases. Half a dozen of people were arrested in these incidents. Apart from this, in the past two days alone, 1,850 units of Phensedyl were seized in two separate incidents.

On Saturday, the South Bengal Frontier also seized Fake Indian Currency notes (FICN) adding up to a face value of ₹2 lakh. The FICN was thrown over the border fence, allegedly from the Bangladesh side to the Indian side, in the border outpost area of Sukhdeopur in the State’s Malda district. Earlier, FICN of the face value ₹2 lakh was seized on March 31, 2020 at the same border outpost.

Vigilant as before

“Smugglers and miscreants are trying innovative means during this lockdown period. The fact that there has been no let down in our vigil in maintaining the sanctity of the international border is clear from the seizures we have carried out in the period of lockdown,” S. S. Guleria, Deputy Inspector General of South Bengal Frontier, told The Hindu.

Mr. Guleria said that while there have been no incidents of cattle smuggling of people trying to cross from one side of the border to the other, the forces have seized Yaba tablets and other narcotics during the lockdown. Along the border, integrated checkpoints that facilitate the movement of goods and people, have also been closed due to the lockdown.

Most porous

The South Bengal Frontier, whose jurisdiction extends from the Sunderbans in the south to the Malda district in the north, guards 912 km of the international border. About 35% of the India-Bangladesh border here is riverine, making it the most porous border along the whole eastern theatre. According to BSF officials, most of the smuggling along the India Bangladesh border takes place through the South Bengal Frontier.