Tough security measures taken

The government has taken stringent security measures to check smuggling of skin and hides of sacrificial animals, as a portion of those is smuggled out to neighboring India every year, reports BSS. Home Minister Advocate Sahara Khatun asked the law enforcement agencies, especially Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) to remain on high alert in border areas to stop smuggling out of the raw materials of the leather industry. She also asked the law enforcers not to allow trucks loaded with hides and skin of the sacrificial animals to leave the city for seven days from Eid-ul-Azha. The minister assured the leaders of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) of stopping smuggling of raw hides at a meeting with them in the Home Ministry. Director General of BGB Maj Gen Anwar Hossain expressed his firm determination to the BTA leaders in stopping raw hide smuggling. Massive security measures have bee taken to curb toll collection from the transports carrying sacrificial animals, snatching of animal hides, forcible sale of hides at low prices, obstructing the transportation of hides and to ensure safe Eid shopping. Checkposts have already been set up at strategic points across the country including the entry and exit points to stop smuggling of skin and hides. Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are guarding the checkposts round the clock. Shahen Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Tanners Association told BSS today, "We are pleased with the measures taken by the government to check smuggle of rawhides." "Hides and skin collected on the occasion of the Eid 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," he said. "We are not fixing price of rawhides as its price is decreasing in the international market day by day,"he said. Over 10 percent skin and hides of the sacrificial animals are smuggled out every year through the border areas, he said.