DHAKA: Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has tightened security along the border with India near Sharsha, in Jessore, to prevent hide smuggling after the Eid-ul-Azha.
It has identified Shikarpur, Kashipur, Putkhali, Doulatpur and Goga as the main smuggling routes.
Police and RAB, too, are on the alert in these places, as traders anticipate hide smuggling after the Eid.
Bangladesh’s second largest hide market after Dhaka is situated in Rajarhat, Jessore.
Traders from 21 districts do business at over 200 wholesale shops located here.
Around 10,000 people are linked with the market in some way or the other.
Larger Jessore District Hide Traders Association General Secretary Alauddin Mukul said the Rajarhat market records about a Tk 200 million turnover during the Eid each year.
Mukul, trader Monir Hossain from Benapole, Nazrul Islam Shahji from Jamtala, and Yakub Ali from Navaron expressed worries over possible smuggling after the festival.
They say tannery owners do not spend the entire money they loan from the government to buy hides. On the other hand, the local traders have to make do without loan facilities.
As a result, local traders often run short of money when it comes to buying hides during the Eid.
Tannery owners, the traders allege, manipulate the situation to force hide prices down.
This encourages dishonest traders smuggle the commodity across to India, where prices are a few notches higher.
Sheikh Shahidul Islam, a trader from Bagachrha, said the smugglers go from door to door, collecting hides by offering attractive prices.
As the tanners have cut hide prices for this year’s Eid, the traders fear smugglers would try hard to sell at higher prices in India.
Khulna 23 BGB guards the southern part of the border at Benapole.
Battalion commander Lt Col Abdur Rahim said his troops were on the alert.
Reinforcements had been brought in and arrangements made for river patrolling, he said.
Sharsha and Benapole port police station officers-in-charge Enamul Haque and Apurba Hassansaid check posts had been set up to plug any smuggling.
They said hide-laden vehicles would not be allowed towards the border.
Lt Col Jahangir Hossain, commander of Jessore 26 BGB at Sharsha, said additional patrols would keep guard from Eid day afternoon.
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