Assam official tours border

Transborder smuggling a worry, says commissioner

Dhubri, May 9 : Assam home commissioner and secretary Rajeev Bora concluded his four-day visit to Indo-Bangladesh border areas of Dhubri district today. Bora, accompanied by a host of state as well as district-level officials, inspected the 135.5km Indo-Bangladesh border from Sadar Tila post under Mancachar to Satrasal border of Dhubri sector and took stock of the situation prevailing in the border for the last three days. Besides inspecting entire aspects of border, from barbed wire fencing to development of border villages, Bora held meetings with police, the BSF, block development officials and National Border Construction Corporation (NBCC) to know the present status of the ongoing projects. An official source said Bora and other senior officials were shown video clippings of cattle smuggling to Bangladesh through the porous border of Dhubri. Bora also met the border villagers of Sishumara, Satrasal and Boraibari and discussed their problems and inspected the 9.3km border fencing along the Mosalabari riverine border done by the NBCC. Asked about his visit, Bora said he had extensively travelled the border areas of the district and taken stock of the situation. “Many a work in the border areas, including border fencing at Moslabari Char, is progressing and will be completed soon. As far as development of border villages is concerned, I have spoken to the officials and instructed them to follow the guidelines of the Centre while implementing the projects,” Bora said. Former AASU international border co-ordinator, Enamul Hoque, who met Bora and apprised him about the border situation, said he had brought the issues of river patrolling by vessel, cattle smuggling, trans-border illegal trade and movement of insurgent groups across the border coupled with unabated infiltration, which was jeopardising the national security, to the notice of the home commissioner. “I have apprised him (Bora) about the ground situation and forwarded some suggestions to stop infiltration from across the border as well as check trans-border smuggling including that of cattle,” Hoque said. A well known social activist of the area, Md Abdul Naser Alfaruque, who has launched a tirade against trans-border smuggling, said he had already written to former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Azad, home minister, P. Chidambaram, chief of the army staff, Deepak Kapoor and director-general of the BSF, Mahendra Kumawat, and apprised them about the grave situation on the border. Alfaruque said the volume of cattle trade is a whopping Rs 20,000 crore since 2003 till date, which is one of the biggest underworld trade in the eastern part of the country controlled by the cattle mafia. “Our concern, however, is not just limited to cattle smuggling but also rampant trafficking of arms through the porous border and frequent movement of militant outfits,” Alfaruque said.