Pirates deadly, desperate

100 trawlers looted, 70 abducted in 3 days

17 September 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, Barisal

Pirates abducted 70 fishermen for ransom from different places of the Sundarbans in three days since Saturday last and 16 of them bought freedom yesterday morning, according to Trawler Owners' Association. During the period, they also looted over 100 fishing trawlers and injured at least 200 fishermen, sources in the association said. They said 42 fishermen were abducted from different areas of the Sundarbans on Saturday and Monday nights. Of them, 16 were released yesterday morning on payment of Tk 5 lakh. Nine of the released fishermen are Aziz of Gyanpara village, Ibrahim of Tengra village, Sagir, Shahadat, Harun and Kamrul of Tafatbaria village, Mostafa of Kathaltoli village, Habib of Hoglapasha village and Shamsul of Ghutabasa village under Patharghata upazila of Barguna district. The names of the remaining seven could not be known. The fishermen said they were abducted from deep forest by two gangs-- one led by Zulfikar and the other by Raju--and held hostage in Kochikhal and Narikelbaria areas of the Sundarbans. On Monday night, another gang abducted 30 fishermen from Kochikhali area of the mangrove forest demanding Tk 15 lakh ransom for their release. The law enforcers could not rescue them until yesterday. A top forest official of the Sundarban said the armed gangs become active during the fishing season from August to March and launch attack on fishermen, loot their trawlers, fishes and other valuables. He told this correspondent that the forest department was trying hard to check the piracy in the Sundarbans despite its limited logistic support. Golam Mostafa Chowdhury, president of the Trawler Owners' Association, has urged the government to provide the coastguards with modern firearms so that they can check piracy in the Sundarbans and its adjacent areas. Miznur Rahaman, commanding office of the coastguards under Patharghata told the correspondent that they were also trying to check piracy and toll collection in the coastal belt.