GUWAHATI:
Money generated through cattle smuggling is used for funding remnant insurgent groups active in Meghalaya, interrogation of two cattle smugglers, who died in a crossfire between Assam police and suspected militants on Tuesday, has revealed.
Akbar Banjara and Salman Banjara were two Uttar Pradesh-based brothers, who were accused of running an “international cattle smuggling syndicate” as well as having links with militant groups. They were arrested from Meerut on April 13 and handed over to Assam Police on April 15.
“The illegal money acquired through this illegal trade is used for terror funding. The arrested persons also disclosed that a huge amount of money from this trade is also distributed to Bodoland Territorial Region-based extremist organisations like NDFB and others and some of Meghalaya. They also disclosed the smuggling routes,” a senior official of the Assam Police said.
They had revealed that cattle were smuggled from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Assam to Bangladesh via Meghalaya.
“They have said that some fundamentalist organisations, as well as Pakistan-based ISI, is also involved in this illegal trade and these organisations are getting a huge chunk of money from the illegal trade and it is also used for anti-India campaign by these groups,” the official said.
“There are illegal hawala transactions in the form of hundis and gold which is under investigation to find out the gamut of this whole illegal trade and money trail and money exchanging hands,” the official said.
“The crime committed by these illegal traders have not only entailed heavy loss to the government exchequer, but the trade has become a breeding ground for anti-national activities and anti-India campaign which is a matter of grave concern for India’s internal security,” he said.
On Tuesday, the arrested accused persons were taken for identification of routes of cattle smuggling through Sankosh River bordering with Kokrajhar and Bhutan along with police party towards Jamduar side.
Suddenly, the police vehicles came under fire from suspected extremists near Jamduar and immediately the police team got down from the vehicles and started returning the fire.
However, the two accused could not get down from the vehicle and sustained bullet injuries.
When the firing stopped and after sensing no danger, the police party immediately evacuated the injured accused persons from the vehicle and sent them in another vehicle for treatment at Soraibil PHC where the on-duty doctor declared them as brought dead. Four policemen also suffered injuries.