BSF intensifies operations against cattle smuggler on India-Bangladseh border

NEW DELHI: A month after union home minister Rajnath Singh asked security forces to crack down on cattle being taken illegally into Bangladesh, the Border Security Force ( BSF) said it has caught 212 smugglers while 15 of them are said to have been killed in exchanges of fire after it intensified operations.

According to figures collected from the cattle corridor located on the Bangladesh border, there has been a drop of nearly 50% in the smuggling of cows. The action has resulted in a steep rise in beef prices in Bangladesh, which is already miffed over the killings of its nationals on the border.

The government has set up a committee to examine a long-term solution to cattle smuggling. Until April 30, there were only 2.7 lakh cattle smuggled to Bangladesh compared with 6 lakh in 2014 for the same period. In 2014, nearly 17 lakh cows were transported over the Bangladesh border while 15 incidents of firing took place throughout the year. The worst affected is south Bengal where the BSF said it’s caught 185 smugglers until April 30 compared with 90 last year.

“We have conducted a vulnerable mapping of the areas prone to smuggling,” said BSF director general DK Pathak. “We are also putting up check posts at second and third tiers to prevent their movement near the border. The attempt is to nab more and more persons involved in the trade.”

In 2011, the UPA government had ruled that the BSF at the Bangladesh border could only use non-lethal weapons. But the pressure on it from the current government to stop smuggling has resulted in killings of Bangladeshis and attacks on BSF jawans by mobs at the border from the other side.

“The action has surely resulted in a crackdown but has also led to a lot of violence on the border with a friendly neighbour like Bangladesh,” said a government official, who is part of the committee. The BSF also feels that the confrontation with smugglers and injuries to its jawans are avoidable and the government needs to formulate a policy at the national level to stop the smuggling.