Cattle smuggling to BD unabated

Unabated cattle smuggling from India to Bangladesh through the West Bengal border has put the Indian security agencies in a quandary, reports bdnews24.com.
"As per ground reports, cattle smuggling along the north-eastern sector of the India-Bangladesh border has dropped drastically, but there is no let-up along the West Bengal sector," a senior official in India's home ministry said. Total cooperation from the state government was a must 'to stop cattle smuggling', he said.
"We are taking all possible measures to stop such smuggling," said Sambhu Singh, joint secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Meanwhile, the issue of cattle smuggling is likely to be discussed in a meeting to be held in Guwahati, Assam today (Saturday).
The Indian Home Minister will chair the meeting, which will be attended by the chief ministers of the north-eastern states and Sikkim.
Mainly security-related issues, including counter-insurgency operations, effective functioning of anti-extortion cells, and strengthening and equipping of regional state police forces, will be discussed.
"The issue of cattle smuggling will also be on the agenda," a government official said.
"The participants will also discuss the effective guarding of the international border in the north-eastern states," he added.
According to official statistics, around 1,700,000 herds of cattle had been smuggled to Bangladesh from India in 2014.
The new BJP government in New Delhi has been advocating a nationwide ban on cow slaughter.
In the recent past, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh had asked the Border Security Force (BSF) deployed along the border to put a complete halt to smuggling of cattle to Bangladesh.