The eight states of Northeast on Tuesday decided to join hands to fight against drug smuggling.
The Northeast region, which shares international borders with China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, has turned into a corridor for drug smuggling.
The DGPs of all the eight states of the Northeast discussed the menace of drug smuggling in a meeting at Agartala on Tuesday.
Rakesh Asthana, director general (DG) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), presided over the day-long meeting.
Senior officials of the Border Security Force (BSF), Assam Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), intelligence agencies and other law enforcing agencies also attended the meeting.
“The meeting decided to intensify coordinated efforts among the law enforcing agencies of the northeastern states to curb the drug menace,” a top Tripura police official said.
The official said the meeting also decided to share information and intelligence inputs related to drug smuggling across the border among various security and intelligence agencies.
BSF Tripura frontier Inspector General Solomon Yash Kumar Minz admitted that the India-Myanmar border with Mizoram and Manipur was the main transit route for smuggling of yaba tablets and other drugs.
The drugs include dry cannabis (ganja), ganja plants, various types of cough syrups (that serve as intoxicants), habit-forming tablets including Yaba tablets (which contain a dangerous chemical compound), brown sugar and heroin.
A Tripura police officer, Durga Kumar Hrangkhawal, 39, was killed after he was hit by a vehicle of suspected drug smugglers at Kalamchoura in Sonamura on November 21 midnight.
A BSF commandant was also killed by the drug peddlers in the same bordering Sonamura area two years back.