India News | Police Firing to Foil Cattle Smuggling Along Indo-Bangla Border

Dhubri, Jul 7 (PTI) Police opened fire at two different locations along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Assam's Dhubri district to allegedly foil attempt of cattle smugglers to cross into the neighbouring country by the river route, police said. The incidents took place in the early hours of Wednesday after night-long operation.

The Himanta Biswa Sarma government has launched a crackdown on drug peddlers and cow smugglers in the state.

The first incident of firing took place at Birsing Char while the second was in Dharamsala area when the smugglers were attempting to cross into Bangladesh with the cattle, Dhubri Superintendent of Police Abhijit Gaurav said.

Acting on a specific input, two separate police teams swung into action and chased the smugglers boat, signalling them to stop but they tried to escape from the spot, he said.

The police fired nine rounds in the air at Birsing char and two at the Dharmasala incident in a bid to apprehend the cattle smugglers but they managed to escape from the spot leaving the boat with the cattle behind, he said.

"We have rescued 22 bovines, six from the boat at Birsing Char, 12 from the boat at Dharamsala and four others from the Gauripur area in the district," Gaurav said.

A case has been registered under the relevant sections of the IPC and a search is on for the cattle smugglers, he added.

Earlier, on June 13, Dhubri police had opened six rounds of fire at cattle smugglers near the Birsing Char area and rescued 30 cows from a boat but the smugglers had managed to escape.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)