2 fish traders held with jatka

A team of the fisheries department arrested two fish traders from Taltali area of Barisal city for catching jatka (hilsa fry less than 10 inches or 26 centimetres in length).

Bimal Chandra Das, district fisheries officer (hilsa), said the fry were seized from five boats coming from different areas on Saturday morning.

Police produced the two arrestees -- Rezaul Karim, 44, and Jasimuddin, 26 -- before a mobile court led by Abdur Rouf Mia, the Sadar upazila nirbahi officer and executive magistrate.

The court sentenced each of the arrestees to one-year imprisonment and sent them to jail the same day.

The court also ordered the administration to distribute the seized jatka to different orphanages, madrasas and slums of the city, court sources said.

The action was taken for violating the eight-month countrywide ban enforced from November 1 to June 30 against netting, transport and marketing of jatka.