Rajnath Singh Rajnath Singh

IN APRIL this year, Union Home MInister Rajnath Singh instructed BSF personnel deployed along the Indo-Bangla border to stop cattle smuggling. Seven months later, smuggling is down 70 per cent and the number of smugglers shot dead till October by the BSF stood at a high of 24, double last year’s 10.

A Home Ministry official said this was the principal issue raised by an alarmed Bangladesh at the November 16-17 Home Secretary-level talks between the two countries in Dhaka.

“The crackdown by the BSF has hiked the price of beef in Bangladesh manifold and is having a crippling effect on their Rs 12,000-crore beef industry,” said the official. Dhaka reportedly requested Delhi to “go easy” on cattle smugglers and to avoid killing them as far as possible.

Incidentally in an agreement signed in 2011, the BSF and Border Guard Bangladesh had resolved to use non-lethal weapons against smugglers and those crossing the border illegally. This had brought down casualties on the border significantly in the past few years.

Rajnath Singh had lauded the BSF during his border trip, while claiming that the force had

managed to bring down cattle smuggling to Bangladesh by 90 per cent.

Last Friday, BSF DG D K Pathak said information coming from across the border indicated smuggling had dropped by 70 per cent. By the end of the year, he estimated, the aggregate comparative drop would be anywhere between 40 and 50 per cent. “Even that would be a big achievement,” Pathak said.

According to figures provided by the BSF, in 2013, about 22 lakh cattle were smuggled to Bangladesh. This dropped to 18 lakh in 2014. In 2015, till July, this figure stood at 4.5 lakh. These figures, sources said, were based on the Customs duty collected by Bangladesh on each cattle smuggled across.

Incidentally, even as the cattle trade has dipped substantially, seizure of animals on the border has remained almost constant in the past three years. In 2013, it stood at 1.22 lakh. In 2014, it was 1.01 lakh, and in 2015, up to October 31, it was 1.19 lakh.

Sources said this was because seizures depended on the force’s capability to handle cattle.

Added a source, “More than seizures, it’s the aggressive approach towards cattle smugglers that has led to the decline of the illicit trade. Nobody wants to lose his life just to earn Rs 2,000, the amount a smuggler earns every time he takes cattle across the border.”

BSF officials said that the 2011 agreement to not use lethal weapons had also led to attacks on security personnel by emboldened smugglers. “They thought our men could not use guns. But we have told our personnel now to use discretion and defend their life with a gun, if needed,” Pathak said.

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