The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel have been put on highest alert in all frontier areas to stop smuggling of rawhides out of the country.

“We have taken highest security arrangement along the border areas to prevent rawhide smuggling out of the country as per directives of the government,” a BGB official told BSS on Monday.

Director General of the BGB Major General Md Shafeenul Islam will visit Sahyebnagar BOP (border outpost) of Rajshahi tomorrow to oversee the overall security arrangement to check rawhide smuggling, he informed.

The BGB official hoped that the BGB men will be able to effectively check rawhide smuggling this year as they did in previous years.

Besides BGB, police personnel have also been put on highest alert particularly in the bordering districts to check rawhide smuggling.

In this regard, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has taken measures to direct all vehicles carrying rawhide towards Savar tannery industrial estate, before leaving the capital.

To enhance their vigilance in this regard, the DMP in coordination with Dhaka district police have set up check-posts at all strategic points in the capital for seizing the hide-laden trucks from one district to another.

President of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA) Shaheen Ahmed speaking at a press conference on Saturday demanded a month-long vigilance by the BGB across the border so that no single vehicle carrying rawhide can cross the border.

Mentioning that the country’s tanneries collect 60 percent of their annual rawhides during Eid-ul Azha, he said they had projected that the tannery owners could procure rawhides of around 85-90 lakh sacrificial animals, including 50 lakh of cows, this year.