Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has strongly denounced and protested the claim of Border Security Force (BSF) of India that the Bangladesh’s border force supports cattle smuggling from India as published in a newspaper.
The Indian Express newspaper published a report titled ‘BSF: Border Guard Bangladesh supports cattle smuggling’ on July 13 last where the Indian border force claimed that BGB supports “inhuman, merciless and seditious” activity of cattle smuggling.
In a protest note signed by Public Relations Officer of BGB headquarters Shariful Islam on Sunday, Bangladesh’s paramilitary force termed the report and the BSF statement ‘baseless’.
Actually, BSF’s inactiveness and lack of efforts to prevent the gathering of cattle on Indian soil and their smuggling through rivers raise questions, it said.
Indian smugglers are overenthusiastic for smuggling cattle to Bangladesh as they find it very lucrative, affecting local
farms, BGB said, adding that it has taken a stern stance against cattle smuggling for this.
It said various measures have been taken with the participation of public representatives, administration, police, elite of the society as well as mass people to prevent the cattle smuggling.
The Indian newspaper might have published the report to hush up the failure of BSF, BGB said.
In what appears to be the first such official articulation on cattle smuggling, BSF claimed BGB supports the “inhuman, merciless and seditious” activity.
In a press statement dated July 6, on its preparations to check cattle smuggling ahead of Eid-ul-Azha, the BSF has cited religious and medical reasons to underline that the meat of the smuggled cattle is not fit for consumption, reports The Indian Express.
The statement, in Hindi, gives details of how the animals are smuggled across the border. “The inhuman, merciless and seditious actions of cattle smugglers are very disgusting,” it says.
It says the cattle are blindfolded, and banana stems are tied to them to help them float on the Ganga, so that they can be swept across to Bangladesh.
“When they arrive in Bangladesh, there are hundreds of Bangladeshi cattle smugglers who capture these animals, using their speedboats. This task is sometimes done with the agreement of the Border Guard Bangladesh personnel,” says the statement, signed by DIG SS Guleria of South Bengal Frontier.
Citing medical reasons, it says: “When the cattle undergo mental and physical pain before being slaughtered, its meat is not fit for consumption. Because the lactic acid in its body is completely depleted… due to the absence of lactic acid in its meat, many types of harmful bacteria flourish in it. Those who eat it are at risk of falling sick.”
Earlier, India’s Anandabazar Patrika published a report headlined ‘Bangladeshis are stepping on unprotected land’ on July 7.
The report claimed that that Bangladeshis occupied India’s land with the help of BGB members.
The BGB has strongly protested the news report of the Indian media saying it was false, fabricated, baseless and motivated one.
The Anandabazar newspaper said Bangladeshi villagers are claiming about 22,000 acres of unprotected Indian land along Raninagr and Jalangi border.
In a statement on Friday, the BGB said no such incident occurred along the border areas as mentioned by the newspaper.
The Anandabazar Patrika had earlier offered apology for using the word ‘charity’ in its report on the duty-free access facilities provided by the Chinese government to 97 percent Bangladeshi products to its market from July amid the India-China standoff in eastern Ladakh.
In a corrigendum titled ‘Mistake correction’ on the fourth page of its Tuesday’s print version, the Indian Bengali-language daily wrote, “Many readers were hurt at the use of word ‘charity’ in the report titled ‘Beijing taking Dhaka in its side after Ladakh’. We’re sorry for the unintentional mistake and offer unconditional apology.”
The government of China has recently announced to give duty-free access to 5,161 more Bangladeshi products in the Chinese market from July next while the country already enjoys duty free access for 3,095 products under Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA).
With the new ones, a total of 8,256 products of Bangladesh will now have duty free access to China market.
