HATSINGIMARI, Sept 11 � Large-scale cattle smuggling to Bangladesh through the riverine border in Dhubri district has become rampant along the border areas since the last few months.
Every night, thousands of cattle including bulls, calves and buffaloes are smuggled to Bangladesh through the Brahmaputra river. As the river is in a spate, the cattle are just pushed into the river from some ghats on the Indian side under the Sukchar police station and within two or three hours the cattle reach a char or ghat in Bangladesh where the Bangladeshi smugglers lie in wait. Mobile phones using networks on both sides of the border help immensely in running the cattle smuggling operations.
While thousands of cattle head for Bangladesh by the river route, BSF jawans at the Borairalga and Shishumara BOPs manage to seize only two or five per cent of the smuggled cattle while the rest easily reach Bangladesh due to the high current in the river.
BSF personnel at the Borairalga BOP seized 17 cattle on August 18, 37 on August 19, 45 on August 20, 52 on August 21, 25 buffaloes on August 23, 29 cattle on August 22, 5 cattle on August 24, 92 cattle on August 25, 30 on August 26, 59 cows, two buffaloes on August 27, 28 on August 28 and 40 including 16 buffaloes on August 29.
On the other hand, the BSF personnel at the Shishumara BOP seized 49 cattle on August 29, 39 cattle on August 28, 28 cattle on August 27. Again, in a combined operation, personnel of the 162 Bn BSF and 22 Bn BSF seized 131 cattle on August 30. Again, BSF personnel seized 100 more buffaloes from Sukchar areas recently.
