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| Major Events Vol. 3 Issue No. 29 | June 16-30, 2007 |
Smugglers attack BSF men Though modern surveillance equipment like hand held thermal imagers and night vision goggles improved surveillance along the Indo-Bangla border areas, cattle and ganja smuggling through the international border remains a matter of concern and what is more disturbing is that the smugglers have also started attacking Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. BSF sources said that within this year, the troops of the BSF seized smuggled cattle worth Rs 3.5 crore and ganja worth more than Rs 46 lakh in the Assam-Meghalaya frontier of the international border. BSF sources revealed that on June 1, acting on a tip-off, BSF personnel posted in the Mankachar area, equipped with night vision surveillance devices laid seize along the international border and one ambush party traced a group of more than 20 smugglers along with a good number of cattle trying to cross the international border. The party challenged the smugglers, but undaunted by the call of the border guarding force personnel to stop, the smugglers attacked the BSF men with sharp weapons. The ambush party leader, sensing danger, opened fire. The smugglers managed toe escape under the cover of darkness, but the BSF managed to seize 33 cattle heads valued approximately at Rs 8 lakh. In another incident in the same area, the BSF managed to seize 20 cattle heads a few days back. BSF sources revealed that India has a large cattle population and as due to religious sentiments, slaughter of cattle is restricted to a great extent, smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh has become a matter of concern. Over the years, a number of cattle “haats” (markets) cropped along the international border and a huge number of cattle from other parts of the country find their way to these cattle markets. The number of cattle traded in these markets is much more than the local requirement and it is evident that a very high percentage of the cattle traded in these markets find their way into the hands of the smugglers to be smuggled out to Bangladesh. BSF sources said that the cattle smuggling has led to criminalization of the environment in the international border areas and contributed to decay in the moral values of the youths living in that area. Sources said that only the BSF cannot check the menace, and the civil authorities and other law enforcing agencies would have to play a vital role in dealing with the problem. It may be mentioned here that the Government of India has recently sanctioned construction of a new composite fencing along 70 kilometers of the international border as the existing fencing has become almost redundant and the task of the border guarding agency has become more difficult as the existing fencing is being uprooted for the erection of the new one. Meanwhile, smuggling of ganja is also posing a serious problem along the international border. Sources revealed that on May 30, an ambush party of the BSF managed to apprehend two smugglers, one of them a Bangladeshi national and seized more than 100 kilograms of ganja from their possession from near the Mantrichar area in Dhubri district. On May 1 last also, BSF men managed to seize more than 200 kilograms of ganja from the smugglers. Sources said that the smugglers try to make use of the chars along the international border and use the riverine border to smuggle out ganja and the arrests of both Indian and Bangladeshi nationals in connection with the seizures proved that smugglers from both the countries are hand in glove in this illegal trade. |
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