Agartala, May 28 (IANS): The Border Security Force (BSF) seized 86 heads of Myanmar breed cattle in Tripura on Sunday and arrested 18 people involved in their illegal transportation, officials said.

A BSF spokesman said that the personnel acted swiftly on an intelligence input regarding the transportation of Myanmar breed cattle from Shiblong near the Tripura-Mizoram border from Assam by vehicles.

"A team of BSF troopers closely monitored the tri-junction of Shivbari near Machalibazar Police Station in Dhalai and intercepted 20 vehicles carrying cattle and nabbed 18 Indians involved in the smuggling of livestock. A Mahindra Scorpio was leading the convoy of 20 vehicles.During the search, the BSF team recovered 86 livestock being transported in these vehicles," the spokesman told the media.

The BSF suspects that all the cattle, smuggled from Myanmar, were intended to be smuggled to Bangladesh through Tripura, which shares an 856 km border with Bangladesh.

Vigilant BSF troopers are effectively guarding the borders and regularly rescuing livestock and reducing crime from the bordering areas, the spokesman said, adding that the seizure would significantly impact the illegal trade of cattle trafficking.