New Delhi: Even as Border Security Force (BSF) has intensified its patrolling along the 4096.70 km long India-Bangladesh border, the smuggling of drugs, arms & ammunition, as well as cattle, continues unabated along this sensitive border. Talking to ETV Bharat in New Delhi, a senior official in the border guarding agency said that the demand and available supply of drugs, cattle as well as arms & ammunition have become a major concern for security agencies.
"We are doing continuous patrolling along the India-Bangladesh border. However, the smugglers and anti-social elements always take the advantage of the critical terrain and porous border to do their business," the BSF official said.
As per government statistics, a total of 43732.795 kg of drugs have been seized from the India-Bangladesh border from January 2020 up to April this year. The majority of drugs have been seized from the Tripura border (26130.080 kg) followed by Assam (8796.948 kg), South Bengal (5396.175 kg), and North Bengal (2360.682 kg), Mizoram and Cachar 773.568 kg) and Meghalaya (275.342 kg).
As far as the seizure of arms and ammunition is concerned, BSF has seized a total of 9706 arms and ammunition from all the frontiers of the India-Bangladesh border. The major haul of arms and ammunition took place along the Mizoram and Cachar frontier in 2020 when the border guarding agency seized 31 arms and 7894 ammunition.
From January to April 30 this year, 794 ammunition and 2 arms were seized from the Meghalaya border followed by 193 ammunition and 3 arms from Mizoram and Cachar border, 12 ammunition and 4 arms were seized from the South Benga while one arm and ammunition seized from Tripura frontier. As per the government statistics, 62,835 cases of cattle smuggling also took place along the India-Bangladesh border from 2020 to 2022.
Ironically, the majority of the cattle smuggling cases (30,090) were reported by the Guwahati frontier of BSF during the same period. "We have rescued 62,835 cattle from all the frontiers of the Indo-Bangla border since 2020," the official said. The government statistics further said that 14,968 people have also been apprehended along the Indi-Bangladesh border from 2019 till May this year.
As many as 1005 people were apprehended since January this year while they were trying to intrude into India and 1070 people were apprehended while going from India. Actually, India and Bangladesh share a total of 4096.70 km border connecting states like West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram.
Both India and Bangladesh keep discussing these issues in their annual meetings. India and Bangladesh also signed a bilateral agreement on combating international terrorism, organized crime, and illicit drug trafficking in 2010. Both the countries also signed a bilateral agreement on illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and related matters in 2016.
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