Piracy forces fishermen to give up fishing

Many fishermen have left their traditional profession and many others are passing hard days as they can not go for fishing.

At least six fishermen were killed and 900 injured in last six months as armed pirates looted at least 445 trawlers and fishing boats and hijacked another 700 in Patharghata and Taltali coastal areas in Barguna district and in the Sundarbans coast.

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Fishes and equipment worth over Tk 8 crore were looted during the period, they said.

The desperate fishermen on Monday attacked the the Upazila Nirhabi Officer's office and the police station in Char Tojumuddin demanding steps to stop piracy. At least 50 people were injured in the violence. Police had to open fire to quell the violence.

Pirates, after looting trawlers and throwing fishermen into water, take the hijacked vessels to their dens in remote areas of Sundarbans and send messages over mobile phones demanding huge amounts of money, food, cigarette, wine and mobile phone cards as ransom.

The pirate gangs equipped with firearms use speedy water transports like speedboats. They regularly stalk the fishing areas in search of targets.

Emergency steps including regular patrol by Navy and Coastal Guard and coordinated inter-district anti-piracy combing operation are needed to ensure safe fishing on the eve of Hilsha season, sources in trawler owners and fishermen's associations in Barisal told this correspondent yesterday.

The Navy and the Coast Guard sometimes launch operations to nab the pirates. This ensures safety, but only for a few days when the law enforcers patrol the areas.

When they leave a certain area and go for patrol elsewhere on the sea, the pirates return. The pirates play a hide and sick with the law enforcers, the sources said.

An effective way to stop this would be a well-coordinated joint combing operation by all the police stations in the coastal areas, they said.

Piracy in the coasts and on the Meghna estuary has increased as many hardened criminals, chased by Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), have taken shelter in remote shoals and in inaccessible areas in the Sundarbans, they said.