BSF seizes 10 kg of tortoise shells, 900 bottles of cough syrup in West Bengal's Malda

Malda: The Border Security Force have seized 900 bottles of Phensedyl syrup and tortoise shells weighing around ten kg from the Indo-Bangla border in Malda district, the paramilitary force said on Wednesday.

Acting on specific information regarding smuggling of huge quantity of Phensedyl syrup bottles from India to Bangladesh, a special operation was planned and launched in the area of border outpost (BOP) Sasani, a BSF release said.

The personnel observed movement at around 3 am and saw eight to ten persons approaching the international boundary (IB) from the Indian side along with cartons, the release said.

The BSF personnel challenged them and asked them to stop, but they fled taking advantage of darkness and fog, it said.

The operation party, however, managed to apprehend one person identified as Hilal Seikh alias Amir Khan along with ten kg tortoise shells worth around Rs 70,000 and 900 bottles of Phensedyl syrup worth around Rs 1.04 lakh, the release said.

The apprehended person along with the seized items were handed over to the district police authorities at Kaliachak, the release said adding, the BSF South Bengal Frontier has seized 1,76,402 bottles of Phensedyl syrup in 2016 and in these operations, 40 smugglers were apprehended.