Rajshahi border on full alert against hide smuggling

RAJSHAHI, Sept 27: Local administrations have been put on high alert against smuggling in rawhide of sacrificial animals through the borders in Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon and Joypurhat districts.
The district administrations have already asked all law-enforcement agencies, especially the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), to strengthen their anti-smuggling drive further in the areas. BGB local authorities have instructed all the border outposts to remain on the highest alert along the frontiers so that not a single hide is smuggled out from the country.
Lt Col Shahjahan Siraj, Director of 37 BGB Battalion in Rajshahi, said all the border outposts had been kept on the highest alert to prevent hide smuggling.
Besides, every highway check-post will enhance their vigilance in this regard. Instruction of seizing the hide-laden trucks, if found travelling from one district to another, has been given to all the checkpoints.
Divisional Commissioner Helaluddin Ahmed said: "We have received specific instructions from the Ministry of Home and the Commerce also in this regard."
Necessary directions were also given to the law-enforcers to avert any sort of area-based violence that might be erupted centring on hide purchase and sale. "We are pledged-bound to prevent hide smuggling. The government has a clear-cut instruction in this regard," said Mejbah Uddin Chowdhury, deputy commissioner of Rajshahi.
Meanwhile, among the local traders, there is a grave apprehension of huge hide smuggling along the Rajshahi border. The issue has become a serious concern for the traders at present.
Asaduzzaman Asad, district unit president of Hide Traders Association, told BSS that the regular traders who invest huge money in purchasing and selling hide round the year cannot manage the big amount of cash to purchase the hide in the Eid market when the transactions suddenly shoot up.
Only in Rajshahi district transactions involving at least Tk 200 million to 220 million (20 to 22 crore) are made during the Eid, he said. Asad urged all the authorities concerned to deal with the seasonal brokers strictly under the existing rules and regulations. Otherwise, he said, it would be difficult to check smuggling in hide.--BSS
Ends/AR/Sept 27, 2015