Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) seized 994,000 yaba tablets, estimated at about Tk 30 crore, in three separate operations along the Teknaf and Ukhiya borders on Wednesday night, and detained two suspected drug traffickers.

Lt Col Md Zahirul Islam, commanding officer of the 64 BGB Ukhiya Battalion, confirmed the seizures on Thursday. He said that at about 8:30pm, a BGB team spotted a boat arriving from Myanmar near Jelepara in Hnila. Seven or eight traffickers unloaded sacks of yaba into the water and took cover in nearby mangroves. When a second BGB patrol approached by speedboat, the traffickers opened fire, and the BGB returned fire and advanced. The traffickers abandoned the floating sacks and fled to Myanmar by boat. BGB recovered 890,000 tablets in 10 sacks of various sizes.

In a separate operation at about 11:30pm in Anjumanpara, under Palongkhali Border Outpost in Ukhiya, BGB detained Md Ramzan Ali, 18, with 100,000 tablets. At about 9pm, a search at the Whykong checkpoint in Teknaf led to the detention of Md Hossain, 20, with 4,000 tablets and a motorcycle.

The BGB has a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and will continue its operations to stop smuggling across the border, Lt Col Zahirul said.