Border smuggling: 30,000 Indian troops deployed

Risingbd Desk: A total of 30,000 Indian soldiers are now guarding the border with Bangladesh as the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s government this year - stop cattle from crossing illegally into the Muslim-majority neighbor.

Every other night, troops armed with bamboo sticks and ropes wade through jute and paddy fields and swim across ponds to chase aging bovines, and smugglers, headed for markets in Bangladesh, according to the media reports.

Days after advocating a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, Union home minister of India Rajnath Singh on Wednesday asked BSF jawans deployed along the Indo-Bangla border to put a complete halt to smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh so that people there give up eating beef.

One Indian newspaper reports quoting the minister was saying; "I am told prices of beef in Bangladesh have gone up by 30 per cent recently due to heightened vigil by BSF against cattle smuggling.

"You further intensify your vigil so that the cattle smuggling stops completely and prices of beef in Bangladesh escalates 70 to 80 per cent more so that people of Bangladesh give up eating beef," he said while addressing jawans of BSF at this Border Out Post.

According to official statistics, around 17 lakh cattle were smuggled to Bangladesh from India in 2014.

The Indian home minister at that time also stressed that India would like to further strengthen relations with Bangladesh.

Reportedly, an RSS spokesman in West Bengal, Jishnu Basu, said, "Killing or smuggling a cow is equivalent to raping a Hindu girl or destroying a Hindu temple."

Agencies

risingbd/ West Bengal/ July 3, 2015/  Parvez/ Mahfuz