Guwahati: In a series of successful offensives against cow smuggling, Guwahati City police have rescued 271 cows on their way to the slaughterhouse within a time span of five days and arrested several notorious cow smugglers.
On July 12, acting on intelligence input, a joint team of Guwahati city police from the Jorabat outpost on the city’s outskirts and Basistha police station intercepted one truck (AS01PC1549) at the Jorabat area. The vehicle was full of cattle without valid documents, and it tried to smuggle 35 live cattle to Byrnihat in Meghalaya. The police team arrested cow smugglers Abdul Kadir of Juria and Khairul Islam of Dhing in the Nagaon district. Sadly one cow was dead while transporting in the truck.
Further investigations are going on in this case. Police sources told ‘Organiser’ that these cows were mostly from the upper Assam districts of Golaghat and Dhemaji. Cow thieves are active in those districts, and most smuggled cows are stolen.
On July 11, a team from the Jorabat outpost under the Basistha police station busted three major cattle smuggling attempts, rescuing 67 live cattle while recovering the carcasses of 11 cattle.
Four cow smugglers – Faruk Abdulla (24) of Darrang district, Habibur Islam (30) and Nur Mohammad (30), and Ashikul Islam (21), all three from Nagaon district, were arrested. 2 trucks (NL02 K 3695 & AS23 CC 0304) & 1 pick up truck (AS01 QC 5717) were seized by the police team.
On July 10, a team of Jorabat outposts under Basistha PS foiled a cattle smuggling attempt after it intercepted a truck (AS01 EC 3219) at Jorabat. The team rescued fifty-six cows. Sadly five dead cattle were also recovered from the vehicle. One cow smuggler, namely Saddam Hussein of the Barpeta district, was arrested.
On July 7, in a massive crackdown on cattle smuggling, City Police turned the heat on the cattle smugglers as three incidents of attempted cattle smuggling from Assam to Byrnihat in Meghalaya were averted. The vigilant police team rescued a total of 113 cattle. The police seized 35 live animals from a truck in Jorabat. The driver and another passenger, both from Nagaon district, were arrested. Similarly, another truck carrying 42 cattle was intercepted at Sonapur, and two people, including the driver, were arrested. A third truck carrying 36 cattle was intercepted in Nagaon district, and two people were arrested. All three trucks were headed to Meghalaya. A total of
Six cow smugglers were arrested, while the police team seized three trucks for cattle transport.
On July 3, 40 cows were rescued from an oil tanker by Guwahati police at Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati city under the Kamrup Metropolitan district. The arrested smugglers were identified as Gulzar Hussain and Faizul Ali. As per the report, as many as 40 cattle heads were rescued from an oil tanker bearing registration number AS 05 C1655’ in the Sonapur area. The vehicle was intercepted based on intelligence input on National Highway no 37.
In the middle Assam district of Nagaon, Police successfully recovered and seized a total of 438 cattle heads which were being illegally transported outside the state in April and May 2023.
In this connection, 55 cattle smugglers/thieves were arrested and forwarded to judicial custody and 36 vehicles used in the crime were seized. The Assam police arrested 1900 cattle smugglers while rescuing more than 16000 cattle and seized 845 vehicles used in cow smuggling. The Assam Chief Minister recently informed the assembly that as many as 612 vehicles were seized and 1,326 persons arrested in 2022 involved in cow smuggling. During this period, over 13,000 cattle, which were to be smuggled to Bangladesh, have been recovered. Most of these incidents are from the Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh, where 617 cases were lodged in 2022.
