4 BGB men injured in clash with yaba traders

Four personnel of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been injured in an alleged encounter with suspected drug smugglers at Cox’s Bazar’s Teknaf.

One of the suspected yaba traders has been detained after the skirmish, the BGB said.

Lt Col Abuzar Al Zahid, commander of BGB-42 Battalion at Teknaf, said they raided Moulviparha on a tip-off that a huge consignment of contraband yaba was coming from Myanmar on Friday night.

BGB claimed local drug smuggler Md Ismail, 42, was detained after he was shot during the skirmish.

The border guards said they seized 49,400 yaba tablets from him.

Ismail has been hospitalised at a Teknaf hospital.

Four injured BGB personnel -- Khorshed Alam, Mintu Das, Md Majid, and Nurul Islam -- have been given first aid.

Lt Col Zahid said they challenged several men when they got down from a boat. “The men opened fire on the BGB and an encounter followed,” he told bdnews24.com.

He said Ismail was shot during the ‘encounter’ and his companions fled leaving him behind.

Ismail told the BGB that they were coming back with a yaba consignment from Myanmar.

He said another smuggler was injured in the skirmish and was possibly hiding in a nearby village, BGB officials claimed.

Yaba was originally manufactured by the Nazis to keep their troops awake for days. It gained popularity among the party-goers across East and South Asia.

Now it is mainly produced by the United Wa State Army, an ethnic rebel group in Myanmar.

Teknaf is a popular route for yaba smuggling.