Bangladesh alerts border forces to stop raw hide smuggling to India

Law-enforcement agencies especially paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) have been instructed to be on alert to check smuggling out of raw hide of sacrificial animals to India through the borders.

In a high-level meeting on Sunday in capital Dhaka before Eid- ul-Azha, also known as festival of animal sacrifice, all the relevant law enforcement agencies were given the instruction.

Officials say the instruction has been given against the backdrop of hide smuggling to India every year after Eid-ul-Azha when more than 42 percent hides are collected in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh tanners are hoping to procure some 6 million pieces of raw hide after this year's Eid-ul-Azha which falls on or before Sept. 25.

"We've instructed law enforcers including BGB men to remain on highest alert along the frontiers so that not a single hide is smuggled out from the country this year," Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told journalists after the meeting.

Bangladesh tanners often allege some outsider businessmen procure raw hide through their local agents at an exorbitant rate to smuggle out the same to India instead of selling those in local markets.

"We are pledged-bound to prevent hide smuggling during this eid occasion," Kamal said and added that the Bangladeshi government will fix prices of raw hide so that outsider businessmen can't procure raw hide through their local agents at an exorbitant rate preventing the local traders to purchase hide.

Bangladesh exports finished leather to over 30 countries including China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and Vietnam.

S: XINHUA