|
Amir Bhai is a worried man.
The middle-aged man with salt and pepper hair and a neatly trimmed beard runs a tannery near Posta Bazaar in Dhaka. He is also a partner in an export firm, partly funded by a Korean firm, which makes leather items like wallets, belts and bags.
Business is good. But the future looks uncertain. Rumours of a crackdown on cattle smuggling in neighbouring India have not gone down well in Bangladesh. The dapper businessman's glasses glint as he frets over whether reports of a major project to stem the flow of cattle into Bangladesh are true.
Because every third head of cattle in Bangladesh is smuggled in from India.
Many come from as far away as Haryana and Punjab. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 animals enter Bangladesh almost everyday through West Bengal alone. While the trade is illegal on the Indian side, it becomes legal the moment the livestock enters Bangladesh.
|
