India’s home minister asks BSF to stop cattle smuggling into Bangladesh

India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh has asked the Border Security Force (BSF) to prevent cattle smuggling along the border with Bangladesh at any cost.

New Delhi Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Dec 2014, 04:50 PM
Updated : 1 Dec 2014, 05:57 PM

“I want to tell you (BSF) that you should stop the smuggling of cows at any cost, and if you are doing that already I compliment you for that,” said Singh, while addressing the 49th raising day celebration of the BSF on Monday.

Director General of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Maj Gen Aziz Ahmed was also present on the occasion.

“BSF works on many frontiers. You have to strive to stop illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, deal with narcotics, fake currency notes being smuggled from this border,” Singh said while lauding the efforts of the country’s premier border guarding agency.

Cattle smuggling is a rampant crime on the Bangladesh border. The saffron brigade – BJP and its associates – has always been vocal against the racket along the 4,096 km India-Bangladesh border.

A report by BSF Inspector General Ashok Kumar says truckloads of cattle from Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are shipped to the India-Bangladesh border every day.

“From here the cattle are smuggled to Bangladesh,” the report said.

The home minister urged the neighbouring countries to guard against the upsurge of ISIS and other Islamic activists.

“A threat is a threat,” he said, adding if a neighbouring country was affected by terrorist groups, the others were threatened, too.

Rajnath Singh also lauded the BSF’s role in guarding the India-Pakistan border.

“When Pakistan recently violated the ceasefire, the BSF dealt with it with utmost restraint. But when provoked with frequent ceasefire violations, the response by the BSF was commendable,” he said.