Cattle smuggling: What we must do to honour BSF officer who was crushed to death
Deepak Kumar Mondal, the officiating commandant of 145 Battalion of Border Security Force, died on October 20, having been in a coma for almost four days at a Kolkata hospital. He leaves behind his wife and two young children. The organisation has lost a promising and bold leader. I am overcome by a sense of extreme grief because Mondal had worked under me for more than a year at Manipur's Churachandpur, and during the time, what had impressed me was his capability to think out of the box and his conscientious approach.
The officer had suffered grievous injuries while trying to prevent a gang of cattle smugglers in western Tripura's Sonamura border outpost. During the process of normal supervisory duties in his area of responsibility, he encountered a group of 25-30 smugglers trying to transport a large number of cattle to Bangladesh. Mondal warned them against proceeding, but the smugglers pushed the cattle towards Bangladesh. He then radioed the nearby BOP for reinforcement while the guard and driver accompanying him caught hold of a few cattle. The smugglers, who were in possession of bricks and machetes, tried to encircle them and started pelting at them. The guard accompanying Mondal then fired straight into the air to forestall their movement, and, subsequently, in a bid to escape, the smugglers deliberately ran their vehicle over the officer, crushing him under the wheels.
The death of the officer once again brings to focus the rationale of government directives with respect to the use of force by troops, especially lethal weapons, and their policy towards cattle smuggling.
The scenario is typical of what the BSF trooper faces every day on the India-Bangladesh border. Heavily outnumbered by cattle smugglers, the troops find themselves hamstrung by directives that prevent them from using lethal force against smugglers. The latter very well know about the restrictions imposed on troopers and feel emboldened, aggressively attacking the forces when intercepted.
This is reflected in the increasing numbers of injuries and even deaths of BSF jawans. The number of jawans injured in attacks, which stood at 11 in 2009, rose to 147 in 2011 after the restrictions on firing were put into place and the implementation of "coordinated border management plan" with Bangladesh; the toll has remained steadily more than 100 every year since then. The deaths due to firing by BSF have, on the other hand, reduced drastically from 93 in 2009 to 24 in 2011 and stand at 9 in 2017.
Cases such as assistant commandant Anubhav Atrey's, in which a Bangladeshi smuggler was killed after the officer fired the "pump action gun" in West Bengal last year, also send out a negative message to the troops - that if one opens fire even in self-defence, he is likely to face penal action. Atrey is awaiting a likely court martial.
It is no one's case that the troops should be trigger-happy. The fact is, the troops have a charter to fulfil and they are armed with different types of weapons to do so. Therefore, the decision to open fire needs to be left to the assessment of the situation by the commander on spot.
The other policy review that the government must undertake relates to cattle smuggling. The fact remains that India has surplus cattle and a lot of it is unproductive and that Bangladesh's leather and meat industry - the country's chief foreign exchange earner - is heavily dependent on cattle from India. Therefore, I believe, Bangladesh actively encourages cattle smuggling and terms the activity as "cattle trade".
The demand in Bangladesh is matched by the supply available in India. Poor farmers who cannot afford to feed unproductive cattle need to dispose them - if it fetches them some money, they welcome the business. Religious beliefs are not allowed to come in the way of a profitable economic activity. That is why the cattle from as far as Rajasthan and Haryana travel all the way to the eastern borders to be pushed into Bangladesh. The smuggling of cattle is a well coordinated activity between cartels in Bangladesh and India.
Contrary to popular belief, cattle smuggling appears to have, in fact, increased during the last few years as is reflected in the rising numbers of cattle seized. In 2011, this figure stood at 1,35,291, whereas it rose to 1,68,801 during 2016. This implies the cattle continue to travel to the border, unabated, from the interior parts of the country.
As has been advocated in the past, the government needs to take a pragmatic view of the matter and legalise cattle trade with Bangladesh. The attitude of the media in the coverage of this incident deserves mention. Except for one TV channel - India Today - no other deemed the BSF officer's death important enough to be mentioned beyond a ticker.
Perhaps, the sacrifice of a brave BSF officer is not good enough to get TRPs, or the incident was not suitable for creating a binary and pit one political party against another and raise decibel levels.
That remains the fate of the lesser soldiers of god. Unsung, they continue to remain true to their calling.
Deepak is no more. It will be a fitting tribute to his memory if his sacrifice spurs the government into action and inspires them to take remedial measures.