January 19, 2005

Indian cattle flocking to bangladesh pre-festive

Hundreds of Indian cattle are brought in every day from across the Indian-Bangladeshi border through official corridors and smuggling routes on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.

Sources say that three corridors were opened along the Satkhira border for importing cattle. A duty of Bagladeshi taka (Tk) 500 is payable for each cattle passed through the corridors.
Before, this amount was Tk 7.59/ lakh from January 1 to 14.

The number of cattle-crossings is increasing every day. Informed sources said a large number of cattle are smuggled from across the border through different routes, to evade duty. Smugglers by and large prefer the unofficial routes to pass cattle on 'eid special arrangement with law enforcers'.