Seven of 31 Cattle Seized by Sunamganj Police Die While Held on a Boat

Seven of 31 Indian cattle seized by police in Sunamganj, in north-eastern Bangladesh, had died, the online news outlet Jagonews24 reported on Monday 5 January 2026. According to its Sunamganj correspondent, the remaining 24 animals were being kept night after night on a small boat moored on one side of the Surma river, and no safe shelter had been arranged for them in the bitter cold. The officer in charge (OC) of Sunamganj Sadar police station confirmed the seven deaths and said legal complications had prevented the cattle from being auctioned.

Jagonews24 reported that Sunamganj Sadar police seized the 31 Indian cattle in a special police drive on the Surma river on 20 December 2025. The station's OC, Ratan Sheikh, then said the animals would be put up for auction at 11am on 21 December.

The next morning, however, the Sunamganj Sadar police station Facebook account announced that the cattle would not be auctioned for the time being because of legal complications. The report did not say what those complications were. From then on, according to the report, the cattle were kept day and night on a small boat under a stretched tarpaulin.

Jagonews24 said enquiries on 5 January found that the cattle were still on the boat on the river and seven had died. The report attributed the deaths to the severe cold; it did not mention any examination or opinion from a veterinarian on the cause.

Asked about it, Sunamganj Sadar police station OC Ratan Sheikh told Jagonews24 that the cattle could not be auctioned because of legal complications. "So we are keeping them on the river. Seven of them have died," he said. The report carried no further statement from the police on where the animals would be moved or when the auction would be held.

Sunamganj is a district of Sylhet Division in north-eastern Bangladesh. It borders the Indian state of Meghalaya to the north, Sylhet district to the east, Habiganj to the south, and Netrokona and Kishoreganj to the west. The 2022 census counted 2,695,496 people in the district, which has 12 upazilas. Sunamganj town, the district headquarters, stands on the banks of the Surma, about 50 kilometres west-north-west of Sylhet city.

The Surma is a transboundary river. The Barak, flowing in from north-east India, divides at the Bangladesh border into the Surma and the Kushiyara. The northern branch, the Surma, is fed by tributaries from the Meghalaya hills and passes through many haors, the bowl-shaped wetlands of the region. The two branches rejoin in Kishoreganj district above Bhairab Bazar to form the Meghna.

Photo: Balaram Mahalder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Wikipedia (Sunamganj District, Sunamganj, Surma River)