Red alert along Benapole border to check rawhide smuggling

The Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) has issued a red alert along the border areas here so that the huge rawhides, generated during Monday’s Eid-ul-Azha, cannot be smuggled out of the country. The BGB imposed a restriction on movement of goods-carrying vehicles in the border areas here on Monday evening, urging the frontier villagers to remain alert in this regard. Commanding officer of BGB battalion 26 Col Jahangir Hossain told UNB that the red alert has been issued aiming to check the smuggling of rawhides to neighbouring India. He said the BGB members have been put on high alert by reinforcing their patrol along the border. “The red alert along the border will remain in force as long as the possibility of rawhide smuggling will remain there,” Jahangir Hossain. The biggest route of rawhide smuggling in the south-western region is Putkhali where the red alert will remain in force for at least 15 days, said BGB 23 commanding officer Lt Col Abdur Rahim. “There is restriction on movement of small and any goods-carrying vehicles towards the border,” he added. The red alert acme following the Eid-ul-Azha when well-to-do Muslims sacrifice cattle and share the meat with relatives, neighbours and poor people. According to a government estimate, some 70 lakh cattle are sacrificed across the country during Eid-ul-Azha. Eid-ul-Azha, the second most important religious festival in the Muslim calendar, was observed across the country on Monday, according to a news agency.