Mizo youth volunteers caught cattle smugglers red-handed with as many as 58 high-breed cows on Monday night in Jampui Hills under North Tripura District. The foreign cattle were being smuggled from Myanmar through Mizoram into Tripura.
The local youths who acted following their own source of information apprehended the smugglers and held the cattle – 58 in all, in Jampui Hills. The smugglers did not have any valid paper to claim that their cattle are being moved lawfully.
As per confession made by the smuggler’s agent Jabir Hussain, who on hearing the incident rushed to Jampui Hills from Damcherra, the smuggling activities were rampant in the area, allegedly with the full knowledge of the Vanghmun Police station.
A local alleged that when the cattle smugglers were apprehended by the youths, the smugglers and their accomplices and the policemen from Vanghmun PS tried to bribe the community youths with the offer of Rs 700 per cattle. They tried to persuade them to let go of the smugglers and the cattle, which the community youths bluntly refused.
One community leader of Jampui Hill on condition of anonymity said, “The local organizations investigated into the case further and found that the cattle were brought from certain ‘Mr Chîna’ of Champhai, a town in Mizoram bordering Myanmar”.
“We have even obtained his contact number and questioned him directly about the illegal activities they are into. He admitted it is true that the cattle were obtained through him and claimed that it was done legally and with valid papers. But, the apprehended smugglers did not possess such papers when asked to produce them by the community. We are really concerned that such a huge scale of smuggling has been going on in broad daylight with the involvement of the local law enforcement agency”.
“Before, it was areca nut smuggling, now cattle smuggling and next time it can be human trafficking. We demand that all the culprits be punished as per the law, irrespective of position, to ensure public safety and gain back their confidence in the government’s sincere efforts of delivering good governance”, he said.