Agartala, Sep 7 (IANS) A team of BSF and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials on Thursday seized 53,600 bottles of cough syrup valued at Rs 69 lakh in north Tripura, a BSF official said.

Following a tip-off, the contraband was seized by Border Security Force's Intelligence Wing and officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence from a truck at Ambassa. 

The truck driver and accompanying smugglers escaped when BSF and DRI officials signalled the vehicle to stop.

The official said that since January 2017 till date, the BSF has seized as many as 1.73 lakh bottles of the banned Phensydyl cough syrup, valued at Rs 2.20 crore, bound for Bangladesh.

Cough syrups are smuggled into Bangladesh through West Bengal and four other northeastern states.

India shares a 4,096-km border with Bangladesh in the states of West Bengal (2,216 km), Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km).

Large parts of this border is reverine, mountainous, and unfenced, thereby helping illegal immigrants, intruders, and smugglers cross over without much problem.