Although Rasel, the top terrorist and drug lord of Sherpur border, was arrested after nearly two decades, more than a hundred members of his gang remain active.
Drug trafficking continues unabated along the border route. Every day, drugs worth half a crore taka are smuggled from India into Bangladesh. Due to the non-cooperation of communities, the law enforcement agencies’ regular operations have failed to stop the drug trafficking. After Rasel’s arrest, only the leadership changed. Rasel’s cousin brother, Umar Sani, has been serving as the leader of Rasel’s gang.
For nearly two decades, this gang was led by the top terrorist and drug lord Rasel. On August 28, during an operation, the police arrested Rasel and several others from this gang. For almost two decades, Rasel was involved in drug trafficking. According to inquiries with villagers, law enforcement agencies had failed to arrest the top terrorist and drug lord Rasel for almost two decades. However, at various times, the gang’s drug shipments worth crores of taka have been seized.
Despite more than two dozen cases filed against Rasel for drug trafficking, motorcycle theft from India, and various terrorist activities, Rasel was never arrested. Sometimes, even when arrested, he would get bail and resume drug trafficking with full force. Local sources reveal that Rasel is the nephew of Jamal Mia, General Secretary of Sandhyakura Ward, Nalokura Union, and during the Awami League government, for the last 15 years, Jamal Mia acted as the legal advisor to Rasel’s gang, controlling drug smuggling along with political parties and all departments. However, after the fall of the Awami League government, this responsibility shifted to Jamal Mia’s paternal uncle, Golam Kibria, a UP member from Sandhyakura village.
Locals say Golam Kibria is a close associate of former MP ADM Shahidul Islam and actively participated in his parliamentary election campaigns. His pictures still appear alongside MP Shahidul Islam’s election campaign materials. After the fall of the Awami League government, Golam Kibria became a staunch BNP leader.
Allegations say under Golam Kibria’s leadership and guidance, Rasel has formed a huge gang comprising over two hundred juvenile gangs and people from various professions, known as Rasel’s gang. The members of this gang operate in about 50 villages across 40 kilometers along the border areas of Nalitabari Upazila’s Mayaghasi, Panihata, Ramchandrakura, Kalakuma, Nakugao, Dawdhara-Katabari, Andharpara, Khalchanda, Burunga, Samashchura, Kalisthan, Jhenaigati Upazila’s Holdigram, Sandhyakura, Gomra, Rangtia, Nawkuchi, Halchati, Gojani, Choto Gojani, Bakakura Gandhigaon, Panbar, Gurucharan, Dudhnai, Tawakucha, Sribardi Upazila’s Rangajan, Kharmura, Balijuri, Christianpara, Meghadol, among others, smuggling drugs like ganja, yaba, heroin, weapons, and Indian goods through the Indian border freely and trafficking them to various parts of the country.
It is rumored that Rasel’s gang uses pickup vans for drug and arms trafficking. They own over fifty cover vans, battery-operated autos, and CNGs purchased with their own money. Locals accuse Rasel’s gang of turning the Garo Hills border into a jungle of illegal businesses over two decades. It is said almost every member of the gang carries firearms as well as Chinese machetes and traditional sharp weapons.
Rasel’s gang members reportedly smuggle drugs worth crores of taka daily along the 40-kilometer India border route from Nakrugao area to Karjura. Despite regular operations by law enforcement, drug trafficking on the Sherpur border route is not stopping. Indian and Bangladeshi smugglers have a close connection. To evade law enforcement, gang members often take refuge in India.
Some local administrators, certain named journalists, and political party members from various parts of the country are rumored to be secret associates of Rasel’s gang. Locals also accuse many local public representatives of benefiting from drug trafficking alongside Rasel’s gang. As a result, police fear taking action against the gang.
Currently, drug trafficking and smuggling have become widespread in the hilly border villages of Sherpur, with drugs found in almost every household. The gang forces the simple, hardworking villagers to join the drug trade and uses some villagers as human shields. Those refusing to engage in drug trade face threats, and their homes are planted with drugs and handed over to law enforcement to imprison them.
As a result, the Sherpur border route has turned into a transit road for drug and arms smugglers. In Sherpur district headquarters and five upazilas with 52 unions, drugs are found everywhere, leading the youth into peril and severely deteriorating law and order.
Though law enforcement agencies conduct regular raids, drug trafficking along the border continues unabated. It is known that before Rasel, a drug smuggler named Jewel controlled this gang. Rasel took over the entire gang by force, threatening Jewel with weapons.
Locals say Rasel’s gang receives arms and drug supplies from a drug lord named Ali, residing in Nalokura and Gauripur Unions, who has secretly become a resident of Shishingpara area in India. Ali supplies drugs, arms, and smuggled goods to Rasel’s gang from India by truckloads. Every member of Rasel’s clan, especially women and men, are involved in drug trafficking. The entire Garo Hills border area is scattered with members of Rasel’s gang.
It is said that if any gang member encounters danger while trafficking drugs or committing crimes, Rasel’s gang quickly unites to control the situation. Rumors suggest some law enforcement officers have connections with Rasel’s gang, preventing anyone from speaking against them. Those who speak out face brutal torture and cruelty from the gang. Without association with Rasel’s gang, no suspicious journalist is allowed to enter the hilly area.
Currently, drugs worth crores of taka—ganja, yaba, heroin, weapons, phensidyl, blankets, Indian cosmetics, saris, glasses, cattle, cumin, and other Indian goods—are being smuggled freely day and night through the border. Police sometimes seize large quantities of Indian drugs and smuggled goods in operations, arresting a few laborers, but the masterminds remain untouchable.
According to police, 19 cases have been filed against Rasel in the police station for various drug seizures. Despite this, drug trafficking remains uncontrolled on the Sherpur border. Police sources say Rasel’s gang uses security measures like CCTV cameras at night on drug trafficking points. Rasel’s house is surrounded by sensor lights connected underground to alert them. When the sensors activate, gang members hide, making it difficult for law enforcement to find them. Sometimes, Rasel and his gang members take refuge in India to avoid arrest.
Thus, for the past two decades, Rasel’s gang has ruled the border route. They engage not only in drug smuggling but also in kidnapping, murder, rape, women trafficking to India, and various other criminal activities in the hilly border villages.
They receive support from influential political leaders and some administrators from various parts of the country. Due to this, local police fear taking action against them. In February 2024, Rasel’s gang was transporting drugs worth half a crore taka in a pickup van from Gomra village to Fulpur, Mymensingh. They were chased by intelligence officers near Nokla but escaped into the village, where villagers, suspecting them as cattle thieves, severely beat them. Two gang members, Musleh Uddin and Amir Hossain, died from the attack, and several others were injured.
Last year, Saiful Islam from Gomra village was pressured to join drug trafficking by Rasel’s gang, but he refused. In retaliation, gang members planted drugs in his home, handed him to law enforcement, and later threatened to kill him and his family. Saiful and his family now live in extreme insecurity.
In March, the police seized drugs worth half a crore taka from Rasel’s gang. A few days later, gang members brutally beat a young man named Habibur Rahman, breaking his leg, suspecting he had provided information to the police. Later, Rasel’s gang kidnapped and raped a tribal young woman in a rubber garden in Sandhyakura. A laborer named Sujan recorded the video of the rape but was beaten by gang members and had his phone confiscated. Sujan’s mother, Sakhina Begum, filed a complaint, but no action was taken, and Sujan fled, leaving the rubber garden job.
Currently, drug trafficking worth crores of taka continues day and night through the Garo Hills border. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and law enforcement conduct regular operations but have been unable to stop the trafficking.
According to the officer-in-charge of Jhenaigati Police Station, Md. Al Amin, drugs worth crores of taka have been seized in the past year, and operations continue. Sribardi Police Station’s officer-in-charge Anwar Zahid also confirms ongoing anti-drug operations, with large quantities of Indian goods and drugs seized in the last year. Nalitabari and Sherpur police officials echoed similar statements.
Lieutenant Colonel Mehedi Hasan PPM, commanding officer of BGB’s 39th Battalion, said that in the last year, BGB seized drugs and Indian goods worth approximately 15 crore taka along the Sherpur border route. He assured that BGB operations would continue relentlessly to protect the sovereignty of the border and stop Indian drug trafficking.
