(Reopens FGN 13)

"All this is happening as we are not getting any cows fromIndia (as part of smuggling). We have now decided to rear ourown cattle and meet our demands," Rahman said. Rahman added they have conveyed to BSF that a majority ofthis cattle and cow which is illegally pushed across theborder is "not cultivated" in India’s frontier areas buttravels to these places from the hinterland and central Indianstates and they should curb this. He said with cattle smuggling coming down, the incidentsof killing of Bangladeshi nationals on the border are alsoexpected to go as down as earlier when "this business (cattlesmuggling) was going on, a huge number of cowboys would goacross the border and get caught by BSF who tortured them andat times shot them down." As per BSF authorities manning the border under the SouthBengal frontier opposite this area, they have seized a totalof 1,18,711 cattle heads till August this year, which is 70per cent less than last year, before they could be smuggledacross the border. Rahman, however, claimed his force has not encountered anycases of fake Indian currency notes in their area and there isno big challenge posed by the smuggling of arms and ammunitionin the areas under his command like Khulna and Kushtia at thisborder too. PTI NESNSA