Fear of pirates
Fishermen cannot fish hilsa in bay, estuaries
Coastal fishermen said they were unable to catch hilsa in the estuaries and the bay out of fear of pirates roaming there with no resistance from the law enforcement agencies.
They said that the pirates were looting fishing trawlers, abducting the fishermen for ransom and taking away their trawlers since the peak season of catching hilsa began with the onset of the monsoon.
The hilsa season begins in May and ends in November-December, they said.
And a large number of fishermen are afraid to catch hilsa out of fear of pirates, theysaid.
Bangladesh Coast Guard officials in west and south zones, however, told New Age that they already started operation to rescue the abducted fishermen and to recover their boats and looted goods.
They claimed that a number of fishermen had already been released.
They said they also recovered a fishing boat abandoned by the pirates.
Bangladesh Khudra Matsyajibi Jele Samity leaders said that out of the country’s nearly six lakh hilsa fishermen 1.86 lakh get food aid during the off-season.
Only in past 10 days ending Tuesday, the pirates
abducted 216 fishermen demanding Tk one lakh in ransom for each.
The pirates also took away 35 fishing trawlers and looted fish and other goods worth over Tk 50 lakh, BKMJS leaders said.
They said that 116 abducted fishermen were released after ransom was paid. A total of twenty abducted hilsa fishermen were freed on Thursday, six days after they were abducted by the pirates on August 11, following a joint combing operation of joint forces and a gunfight between the law enforces and suspected pirates at Narkelbaria area under Sundarban east zone on Thursday.
Besides, they said 15 to 16 fishing trawlers, each 150 feet long and 35 feet wide, were yet to be recovered.
BKMJS leaders also said that the pirates attack the fishermen, venturing to fish in the estuaries and the bay, from their hideouts in the Sundarbans in broad daylight.
BKMJS general secretary Anwar Hossain Shikder said that the law enforcement agencies were reluctant to identify the pirates, who come from the mainland, were related to influential political and social quarters and a section of law enforcement agency officials.
He said about 60 pirate groups, at least 15 of them big ones, rule the bay and the coastal belt from Saint Martin’s Iisland to Satkhira.
Anwar said that the though law enforcement agencies conduct operations to ensure security, fishermen felt lack of security to go fish in the bay and the estuaries, as the pirates move freely in the areas in the guise of fishermen.
‘The law enforcement operations in the Sundarbans would continue to be futile exercises unless and until the pirates’ ring leaders in the mainland are nabbed,’ he said.
‘I was caught twice by a gang of pirates and was released only after they were paid Tk one lakh on each occasion,’ fishing trawler driver Kalam Majhi of Khalgora in Kuakata in Patuakhali told New Age.
‘The pirates tortured me during my confinement at their hideout deep in the Sundarbans forests,’ he said.
‘Now, I am scared to go to the bay,’ he said.
KM Mamun-Ur Rashid, staff officer (operations) of Coast Guard west zone at Mongla, told New Age that the Coast Guard and Bangladesh Navy in a joint operation the Sundarbans for four days ending Tuesday had cordoned off the Sundarbans to prevent the pirates from fleeing the forests.
He said that during the operation a fishing boat was recovered.
He said that after the operation the pirates started to release the abducted fishermen, one or two at a time.
Besides, 20 fishermen were freed from the clutch of pirates during a combing operation by joint forces of Coast Guard, Navy, Air Forces and Rapid Action Battalion in the Sundarban on Thursday, he said.
He said that now the law enforces have been patrolling in coastal areas and in the Sundarbans.
Salim Reza Harun, commander for Coast Gourd south zone at Bhola, said that the operation to rescue the kidnapped fishermen had begun but due to shortage of speedy vessels and manpower the pirates could not be thrown out of the bay and the estuaries.
At least 10 gangs of pirates rule the coast along Patuakhali and Barguna, and more than 400 fishermen were abducted in the current hilsa season.
The families of more than 50,000 fishermen in the two districts are passing their days in hardship as the fishermen are scared to fish in the bay and the estuaries out of fear of the pirates.
Fishermen in Kuakata said that they have to pay Tk one lakh to three lakh to collect ‘tokens’ introduced by a notorious gang of pirates, known as ‘Alam Mollah Bahini’ to buy safety from its attacks.
The tokens are Tk 20 or Tk 10 notes bearing signature of the gang leader or the symbol of the gang.
The amount of the extortion depends on the size and the capacity of the fishing trawlers, they said.
-With New Age input
