Habib Sarwar Azad, Sylhet 

Indian saree fabrics worth over one crore taka have been seized in a task force operation from two houses set up as a reek by smugglers on the Bangalvita border at Madhyanagar in Sunamganj on Friday. 

The task force operation was conducted from Thursday afternoon to night under the guidance of the Sunamganj District Administration, CO (BGB) of the 28 Border Guard Battalion of BGB Sylhet Sector, Sunamganj led by Tahirpur UNO and Executive Magistrate Md. Abul Hashem.

 28 - Border Guard Battalion's Sunamganj Commander CO (BGB) Lt. Col. AKM Zakaria Qadir confirmed the matter.

CO BGB said that the task force seized 712 pieces of saris, 20 pieces of lehengas, and 1200 yards of Than cloth, which were smuggled from India by evading customs, from two houses in Haorghesha Kirtanchara, adjacent to the border road, not far from Bangalvita BOP in Madhyanagar, in a raid. The value of the seized goods is about 1 crore 1 lakh 58 thousand taka.

The people of the border town of Madhyanagar secretly informed the Madhyanagar Police Station and UNO about the presence of 116 sacks of Indian cosmetics and clothes in the houses of Jalal and Golap, Kirtan Chharar, Haorghesha, adjacent to the border road near the Bangalvita BOP of the 28th BGB Battalion, but they did not receive any response. 

Then on Thursday, the matter was reported to the CO (BGB), Sunamganj commander of the 28th Border Guard Battalion. On the orders of the CO BGB, four members of the BGB of Bangalvita BOP, Al Amin, son of Nuru Morol, the main mastermind of the smuggling ring, returned seven sacks of Indian clothes to the BGB from one of the two houses for seizure.

The border residents, aggrieved by the incident, once again complained to the Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner and CO BGB.

Having managed to do this, Al Amin, the main mastermind of the border smuggling business, surrounded the two houses where the smuggled goods were kept with his own manpower, armed with domestic weapons, rams, axes, sticks, and clubs, creating panic in the minds of the people.

At one stage, Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Dr. Mohammad Ilias Mia and CO BGB Lt. Col. AKM Zakaria Kadir increased the manpower of BGB to strengthen the operation, Tahirpur Police Station.

 Tahirpur UNO Md. Abul Hashem formed a task force to seize smuggled goods and arrest smugglers, along with members of Ansar.

Upon receiving news of the task force's operation, Al Amin, an inter-upazila border smuggler, his henchmen, and the house owner Jalal and Golap family members cleverly escaped from the house.

The UNO OC of Madhyanagar was not present in the task force operation: Meanwhile, on Thursday, a task force operation at the Madhyanagar border, amidst various dramas, smuggled more than crores of Indian sarees, thanan cloths and lehengas and kept them in two houses. It has been alleged that the local border residents repeatedly informed the UNO of Madhyanagar, the police station OC and the police beat officer about the operation, but they expressed various excuses of reluctance to come to the operation.

Madhyanagar Police Station OC Munibur Rahman said that no one informed the police about this matter.

When asked on Friday, UNO Ujjal Roy, President of Madhyanagar Upazila Law and Order and Smuggling Prevention Committee, said, "The BGB will do the work of the BGB, why should I go there (Bangalvita)? We have inquired about this after the task force's operation."