'Yaba village' unscathed

The mansions of Nazirpara and Moulvipara, two remote villages in the coastal upazila of Teknaf, would fascinate anyone with their architectural beauty.

Only hovels and corrugated-iron-sheet houses were there less than a decade ago but in the last seven years, about 100 villas, some costing Tk 5-7 crore, have been built there.

Most of the locals were labourers and rickshaw pullers. But now many of them have turned their fortunes. They can now afford lavish cars too.

But it is not a fairy tale rags to riches story in which entire villages start to prosper overnight. 

Some of the locals became rich smuggling yaba pills from bordering Myanmar, said their neighbours.

According to local sources, about 400 people are involved in yaba smuggling in Nazirpara and Moulvipara. Nearly 150 of them run large-scale yaba trade and have amassed significant wealth over the last few years. They built some 150 new villas and mansions in the two villages.

As the special drive against yaba dealers goes on, questions arise as to why some alleged yaba godfathers in Ukhia-Teknaf, the gateway of smuggling the crazy drug into Bangladesh, remain beyond the reach of the law.

Their names have prominently figured in multiple intelligence reports over the years.

Yesterday, The Daily Star correspondent visited the villages and talked to several locals.

The air was tensed. Many went into hiding and those who stayed behind were scared even to talk. The reason for their fear is that around 52 alleged drug dealers have been killed in “shootouts” with law enforcers over the last 10 days.

One of the home-ministry listed yaba godfathers in Nazirpara village, just two kilometres away from Teknaf town, is Nurul Haque Bhutto.

Bhutto has a luxurious duplex surrounded by high walls. He has security guards round-the-clock.

He had been arrested by law enforcers in connection with yaba smuggling in the past but he jumped bail recently.

In May, 2016, Bhutto, then 34, led a group of people who swooped on journalists with sharp weapons when they went to Nazirpara to collect information about yaba smuggling.

The attackers hurt five journalists and also took away their cameras and mobile phones and vandalised their vehicle.

Locals claim that Bhutto and his family members accumulated over Tk 100 crores smuggling the drug into Bangladesh and shipping them inland.

Talking to this paper yesterday, a villager of Nazirpara said, “The yaba cartel has their paid employees deployed all over the village. Whenever a stranger arrives, they follow his or her every movement like detectives.”

The villager said most yaba godfathers in the two villages went into hiding following the recent crackdown. A few low-tier dealers are still in the villages but they do not go out during the day now.

A shop owner in Moulvipara said two sibling godfathers and another top leader of a drug smuggling gang went on the run in the last four days fearing the crackdown would eventually reach the villages.

The shop owner said the siblings could be seen all the time at the market but they just vanished.

A local farmer told The Daily Star that he himself was involved in the drug trade but returned to farming a few years ago. He said most of the yaba barons might have taken shelter in their second homes in Chittagong and Dhaka.

Officer-in-Charge Ranjit Kumar Barua of Teknaf Police Station said yaba traders and peddlers dominate the villages. Most of the top yaba traders in Teknaf are from the two villages. Law enforcers and different intelligence units monitor the villages, he claimed, adding that most of the yaba traders left their homes following the crackdown.

Additional Superintendent of Cox's Bazar Police Muhammad Afruzul Haque Tutul said police have already captured some yaba peddlers and have gathered intelligence on the bosses.

“Hopefully, we will have some success soon,” he told this paper over the phone.

He refused to acknowledge that Nazirpara and Moulvipara are known as “Yaba Villages”.