Dhubri (Assam), Feb 18 : Prevention of cattle smuggling from India’s northeastern states to Bangladesh has posed a serious challenge to the Border Security Force (BSF).
Although the BSF manning the porous India-Bangladesh border have made several arrests over the years, but that has not deterred the cattle smugglers from pursuing illegal activities.The Indian Government has ordered fencing around eight kilometers of the India-Bangladesh border in the Dhubri region to curb infiltration and also check smuggling.
Ravi Gandhi, DIG BSF in the Assam-Meghalaya Frontier, informed that security personnel would be patrolling day and night as soon as the fencing work is complete.
Currently, two BSF battalions are deployed to guard this border and riverine tract.
Apparently, the whole border belt in the Dhubri sector lying to the north of the river Brahmaputra is plain with shifting char lands caused due to erosion of soil during the monsoons.
This has made the work of the security forces more difficult.
While in 2008, the BSF seized contraband goods and cattle worth 155 million rupees, in 2009 it managed to apprehend six Bangladeshi nationals and 18 Indian miscreants and Jehadis.
India and Bangladesh share a 4,096-km frontier, regarded as one of the world’s most fluid borders. More than 1,500 miles of the border have been fenced with barbed wire and concrete under the 1.2 billion dollars project during the past seven years.
By Hempi D Henpilen