The Indo-Bangla cattle smuggling syndicate is rising at an alarming rate over the past few days. In a cruel method to smuggle cattle along the India-Bangladesh border, the smugglers have started booby-trapping.

In a fresh technique to smuggle out cattle and to prevent Border Security Force (BSF) from catching them, the smugglers have now started to tie Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) around the necks of the cattle.

The BSF on Thursday recovered few cows with IEDs placed inside a small aluminium canister tied around their neck from the river near the Harudanga border post. According to BSF, this method can lead to fatal injuries to both the cattle and BSF personnel, in case the crude bomb is triggered during handling.

Recently, the cattle smugglers also hurled bombs at a group of BSF jawans, which led to one BSF jawan losing his arm.

It may be mentioned here thatEid-ul-Zuha is fast approaching (likely to be on August 12) and demand forcattle has increased in Bangladesh. The demand has increased at an alarmingrate as the cost per cattle head has gone upto Rs. 1.4 lakh ahead of the Eid-ul-Zuha.