Reza Mahmud :
Cattle smuggling along the porous India-Bangladesh border has been spreading Delta variant of corona virus in the country.
Bangladesh has seen surge in Covid cases since May and the health authorities have blamed the Delta variant, first identified in India.
Sources said that the cattle smuggling along with borders has been increasing ahead of Eid-ul-Azha to be celebrated in the third week of the next month throughout the world.
The Livestock Department said there is sufficient stock of cattle in the country to meet demand for sacrificial animals.
Despite the fact, dishonest traders have started bringing Indian cattle through illegal ways. Along with smuggled cattle, Indian traders are also entering Bangladesh’s frontier districts, which are now, grappling with Covid infection.
In this situation, public health experts urged the government for sealing the borders to help prevent entry of Indian coronavirus variant .
People from bordering areas alleged that traders are bringing cows overnights illegally through different points.
In cases of Thakurgaon the dishonest traders use different points including Haripur, Baliadangi and Ranishankails to bring cows.
In the dark night, the illegally brought cows are carried to Lahiribazar, Nekmorod and other markets close to the borders.
Our Thakurgaon Correspondent Tanvir Rahman Tanu said that the BGB started strong surveillance to prevent cattle black marketing after several cow laden trucks entered the country in recent days.
In the meantime, covid situation worsened in Thakurgaon district. It announced seven days restriction from yesterday (Thursday) after recording 50.64 percent infection rate on Wednesday.
In Lalmonirhat, Our Correspondent Belal Hossain said that the covid situation is becoming awful day by day for cow smuggling and smygglers’ movement violating restriction.
BGB 51 Battalion confiscated about 200 cows in recent days from the district’s borders.
“We have recovered a total of 200 cows in this month brought from India illegally,” Lieutenant .Colonel Ishaque, Commanding Officer of 51 BGB told The New Nation on Thursday.
He said though BGB is alert, it is really not possible to stop people’s movement by 100 percent across the borders.
“The Teesta river and vast sandy areas near the border is really hard to move through. The dishonest persons use those points bringing cows illegally,” the Commanding Officer said.
“But we are now alert and decided to show Zero tolerance to smuggling,” he emphasized.
When contacted, Lieutenant Colonel Tauhidul Alam, CO of 10 BGB told The New Nation on Thursday, “We detained two to three persons today for walking near the India border areas illegally.”
“Such unconscious people are increasing the risk of contaminations of Indian variant of Covid-19 in the area though we are trying utmost to stop it,” he said.
Similarly cow black marketing and crossing borders illegally also happened in Joypurhat and other bordering districts in recent days.
BGB confiscated illegally bringing cows several times, but many of the incidents remain untouched.
BGB 20 Battalion members recovered three cows recently from Hatkhola Mission School of Panchbibi upazila in Joypurhat district.
BGB sources said that they could not arrest persons involved bringing the cows illegally as they had fled on the information of their presence.
Our Jhenaidah Correspondent SI Mollik said that people of the Maheshpur Upazila of the district frequently visited their relatives beyond the Indian border through Matila, Palianpur, Loraighata, Srirampur, Khosalpur and Betbaria points.
