The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has arrested five boatmen who are from Murshidabad district of Bengal on Saturday as their boats drifted into the Bangladesh territory while they were assisting the Border Security Force (BSF) to prevent cattle smuggling.

The BSF, sources said, communicated with BGB and requested that those arrested be sent back as they had inadvertently entered Bangladesh. The BGB authorities, however, refused and handed over the five to the police.

Such a stance of the BGB, which usually maintains a cordial relationship with the BSF, hints at the change in the border policy of Bangladesh, a country that is being run by an interim government now.

On August 17, troops of the 115th battalion of the BSF posted at the Nimtita border outpost in Murshidabad spotted some suspicious objects floating in the Ganga.

They alerted the quick reaction team and the engine-fitted country boats. In response, two boats, which were carrying five boatmen, reached the spot and found that some cattle, which were tied to banana stems, were floating in the river.

“During monsoons, when the rivers swell, smugglers try to use riverine tracts of the India-Bangladesh border to smuggle cattle. They put a triangle of banana stems or branches of trees on the animal’s chuck and shove it into the river. The river’s flow takes the cattle across the border and then, it is pulled back into the bank by smugglers,” said a source in BSF.

On Saturday, as the boatmen tried to rescue the cattle, they faced a challenge as the swollen Ganga swept away their boats into Bangladesh, sources said.

As the news spread, BSF officials informed their counterparts in BGB over the phone and requested the return of the Indian boatmen. Also, a flag meeting was held among the security forces where the BSF explained that the boatmen were engaged by them and that the boatmen crossed the border while trying to seize cattle.

“The BGB however, denied to return the boatmen. Later, it was learned that they have been handed over to the local police,” said a source who is privy to the development.

As per reports in Bangladeshi media, BGB has mentioned that the five were Indian cattle smugglers. They were nabbed at the India-Bangladesh border in Raghunathpur, which is under Shibganj of Chapai-Nawabganj district, says a report published by the Daily Sun, an English daily of the country, on Tuesday.

Three cattle, some sharp weapons, and two boats have been seized from them, say the reports which have come up in some other newspapers of the country.

It also mentioned that those arrested have been identified as Sarfaraj Islam, Aslam Sheikh, Deep Singha, Rani Mahaldar, and Olil Mahaldar. They are from the Suti and Samserganj areas of Murshidabad district.

Such a move from BGB follows a recent statement of Brig Gen (retd) M Shakhawat Hossain, the home affairs advisor of the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government of Bangladesh.

About a week ago, Hossain, while interacting with media at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka, had said that BGB “will no longer show its back at the border.”

“They should discharge their duties diligently and refrain from showing back at the border. Our people were killed at the border and BGB was forced to hold flag meetings and settle it. This is not done,” Hossain had said.

A former official of BSF said that such a remark from the advisor hints that BGB is under pressure.

“It seems that even if the BGB authorities want to release these boatmen, they cannot do it because of the pressure of the interim government. Their move hints that BGB is taking a stricter approach in these days,”he said.

Sources in BSF said they would, however, continue to harp for the release of the boatmen.

“They had unwillingly crossed the border and had no ill intentions. There is no reason as to why they would not be released. We show the same gesture at theborder and there are many instances that a Bangladeshi national, who had inadvertently entered the Indian territory, has been sent back to his homeland through BGB,” said an official.