Northeast used as corridor for drug trade from Myanmar, Bangladesh: Tripura CM
Tripura chief minister Manik Saha said Tripura has sought the Centre’s intervention to strengthen the presence of Border Security Force (BSF) and setting up checkpoints at border areas of Assam and Mizoram
Tripura, Assam and Mizoram are being used as a corridor to smuggle drugs into the country by drug traffickers in Myanmar and also to send the narcotics substances to Bangladesh, chief minister Manik Saha said on MOnday.
“We are aware that Tripura is a corridor for drug traffickers. The drugs are trafficked from Myanmar through Assam and Mizoram to Tripura and then to Bangladesh. Home minister Amit Shah at the Northeast Council meeting stressed that the northeast should not be used as corridor for drug trafficking as arms and ammunitions might come with the drugs,” Saha told reporters in Agartala after his return from the NEC meeting held in Guwahati on Sunday.
Saha said Tripura has sought the Centre’s intervention to strengthen the presence of Border Security Force (BSF) and setting up checkpoints at border areas of Assam and Mizoram. We have also asked for setting up a branch of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Tripura. Besides, issues related to proper border fencing, lighting, drone technology, cameras satellite imagery software etc. were also discussed at NEC meeting,” Saha said.
Tripura director general of police Amitabh Ranjan said that there has been a shift in drug trade from cannabis to synthetic drugs like yaba tablets throughout the country.
The senior police officer said the Tripura Police will be part of the first narcotic coordination meeting to held later this month. “Anti-narcotic task forces will be set up to track the involvement of the syndicates,” he said.