The craze for Indian saris in Bangladesh has led to a "thriving" sari smuggling along the international border as more than 1,000 saris were seized by the border troops.

BSF troops of the Meghalaya Frontier seized two consignments of clothes while being smuggled into Bangladesh.

On Saturday, the troops at Muktapur in West Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, around 100km from Shillong, observed around 10 'miscreants' carrying around eight packets on their heads and moving towards the international border.

'The troops immediately rushed to verify the activity. But on seeing the troops, the men ran away,' a BSF official said on Sunday.

From the packets, the troops recovered more than 790 saris and 1,215 metres of cloth valued at more than Rs 8 lakh, the official said.

In another incident, the BSF at Roadhead (Pyrdiwah) in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills, around 83km from Shillong, seized 340 saris valued at more than Rs 4 lakh, he said.

'Indian saris are very popular in Bangladesh markets. The smugglers were trying to take the saris to Bangladesh to get handsome returns. The smugglers on both the sides of the border remain in constant touch with each other and keep tracking the movements of the BSF patrols to find a chance to smuggle consignments to Bangladesh. But our troops have made considerable seizures to foil such attempts by the smugglers,' the official said.

Text by Andrew W. Lyngdoh