Hide smuggling: Law enforcers on highest alert

Law enforcers have been put on highest alert to check smuggling of rawhides of sacrificial animals, as a portion of those is smuggled out to a neighbouring country every year. The Home Ministry has asked the law enforcement agencies, especially police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to remain on high alert in Upazilas located in districts bordering India and on frontier point to stop smuggling out of the hides and other raw materials of the leather industry. It also asked the law enforcers not to allow trucks loaded with hides and skin to leave Dhaka city for 7 days from Eid-ul-Azha. Check-posts have already been set up at strategic points across the country including the entry and exit points to stop the smuggling of hides. Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are guarding the check-posts round the clock. Hides and skin collected on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha provides lion’s share of the raw material for the leather industry, roughly 50 per cent of the total annual supplies to the local tanneries. Over 10pc skin and hides of the sacrificial animals is smuggled out every year through the border areas, according to a news agency.