Kolkata, Feb 12 (IANS): The Border Security Force (BSF) said on Wednesday that a major cattle smuggling racket in the Malda district of West Bengal has been busted in which miscreants posed as BSF personnel to cross the Indo-Bangladesh Border (IBB). Three Indian cattle smugglers, clad in BSF fatigued, were arrested with two buffaloes.

"This is a major crime. The use of uniforms meant for security personnel is a punishable offence. In this case, they were attempting to smuggle out cattle near the Pannapur Border Outpost in Malda. They had hoped that the BSF personnel wouldn't pay too much attention and would take them to be colleagues tending to cattle that may have been seized earlier. However, the alert troops of the 88 Bn BSF challenged them, resulting in the arrests," a senior official of the BSF's South Bengal Frontier said.

The arrested smugglers were armed with two swords, a knife and a fake plastic gun. The official admitted that this was an eye-opener.

"To any casual onlooker, it would seem that BSF troops are involved in cross-border crime. This could be a reason why false allegations are sometimes levelled at BSF personnel. On a more serious note, such uniforms can be misused by infiltrators to cross the IBB into India. A probe has been launched to find out from where the smugglers got these uniforms," he said.

On Tuesday, the BSF also arrested a Bangladeshi smuggler and seized 1,625 bottles of banned cough syrup that were being smuggled across the IBB to Bangladesh in West Bengal's Murshidabad district.

The Bangladeshi, along with the seized bottles have been handed over to concerned authorities for necessary legal action, while the buffaloes have been sent to the Dhyan Foundation after e-tagging.

"The BSF is committed to foiling all attempts by criminals to breach the international border and carry out illegal activities," said N K Pandey, DIG and spokesperson, South Bengal Frontier, BSF.