New Delhi, Oct. 9: The Border Security Force may have got a pat from the Union home minister for putting a check on cattle smuggling across the Bangladesh border, but the challenge is far from over.

The Bangladeshi cattle “mafia” are now targeting north Bengal, allegedly with the help of their country’s security and other agencies.

With vigil stepped up in the Northeast, cattle smuggling has assumed a new dimension in Cooch Behar.

The BSF has alleged that the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) is encouraging the movement of cattle through Bengal, something it used to do only in the Northeast earlier.

On the morning of September 3, a group of Bangladeshis were caught trying to smuggle around 150 animals from India into their country through the Teen Bigha corridor — a strip that India has let the neighbouring country use since 1974 to help people living in enclaves — in Cooch Behar.

After the smuggling attempt was foiled, the BSF and BDR battalion commandants there held a flag meeting.

Sources said the BDR brass conceded that illegal activities were on and promised action. But they sprang a surprise only days later.

On September 8, the commandant of the 50 Battalion of the BSF received protest notes from his counterpart and proclamations of the innocence of those held. “Obviously, they want to let the crime happen,” a BSF officer said.

Dahgram, from where the cattle were allegedly being stolen, is one of the 111 Indian enclaves — Indian territories on the other side of the border — and 97 Bangladeshi ones.

In a detailed account sent to the Union home ministry by the BSF headquarters here, the incident was cited as an “unusual phenomenon”.

Along the 4,000 km-odd border in the Northeast and Bengal, there are 600 corridors through which cattle are sneaked into Bangladesh.

Indian agencies allege that cattle smuggling is a “Taka 200 crore industry” in the neighbouring country. A smuggled animal is allegedly “regularised” for Taka 500.

“Cattle prices in Bangladesh have gone up because of our vigil,” BSF director-general A.K. Mitra said last week.

Home minister Shivraj Patil lauded its efforts in protecting the borders.

But preventing the passage of cattle, which has the green signal of Bangladeshi security personnel, is a new challenge for the BSF in north Bengal, already working hard to prevent intrusion of Bangladeshi nationals in the face of the BDR’s cover fire.