Cattle smuggling harming interest of Bangladesh farmers, says BGB chief

GUWAHATI: Director-General of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Maj. Gen. Md Shafeenul Islam has said that smuggling of large quantity of cattle from India is harming the interest of local farmers in the neighbouring country.

"Our country is self-sufficient in cattle production. In fact, we are producing more cattle than we need. Moreover, cattle legally come every day from Myanmar. So, smuggling of cattle from India is harming the interest of local farmers in Bangladesh. At the same time, because of smuggling, many criminals are getting killed in operations by security forces," said Shafeenul Islam.

Addressing a joint press conference with Border Security Force (BSF) Director-General Rakesh Asthana here on Friday, Shafeenul Islam said that at least 86 Bangladeshi nationals (48 till December 18, 2020) were killed on the Indian side in the last three years for their alleged criminal activities mainly smuggling.

"We are concerned about cross-border illegal trade. These syndicates are mainly dealing with narcotics and cattle smuggling. We are constantly monitoring them; and have increased our vigil along the border," said Asthana, adding that Indian people are getting killed due to their involvement in criminal activities such as smuggling.

According to Asthana, killings on the border concern both parties. He assured that that the BSF uses lethal weapons only as a last resort.

"These killings are taking place at the dead of the night between 10 pm and 5 am. We are trying to solve this in the most appropriate manner," said the BSF DG.

Meanwhile, both BSF and BGB have decided to intensify joint night vigil at the vulnerable areas to prevent smuggling and other criminal activities in the five-day-long 51st Director General (DG) level border coordination conference between BSF and BGB in Guwahati which started on December 22. Various issues like cattle-narcotics smuggling, border patrolling, killings on the border and confidence-building measures were discussed in the border coordination conference.

"We have agreed to initiate confidence-building measures in border areas. We will also promote civic activities like organising medical camps, having border hubs and helping visit of people so that the population living along the border is benefitted," said Asthana.

He also said that the BGB has agreed to extend full cooperation to the BSF in its year-long celebration to commemorate the 50 years of Independence of Bangladesh.