Six more bodies of the fishermen killed in last week’s pirate attack were recovered from the Bay of Bengal in the last two days, taking the death toll to 27.
Thousands of fishermen living in the coastal villages under Banshkhali upazila have braved the turbulent sea for fishing on engine-run wooden boats all their lives, but the recent attack by pirates has shaken their courage.
They are now thinking of leaving the profession for lack of security.
Fishermen are no strangers to pirate attacks. Many of them have experiences of torture or kidnap in the past, but the brutal killings of so many of their fellows came as a shock they have never known.
No one knows for sure why the pirates had to kill all these fishermen, but relatives say it was perhaps because some of the pirates were known to the fishermen.
Armed robbers on Monday swooped on the fishermen when they were returning home after fishing. The robbers kidnapped 31 fishermen along with two trawlers. The four other bodies are still missing.
Most of the victims are from Guillakhali, Boloimajhirpara, Tekpara and Gondamara villages under Banshkhali in Chittagong. Meanwhile, mourning for the shell-shocked family members, relatives and neighbours of the victims seems never to end.
For Jannatul Ferdous, wife of victim Nur Islam of Tekpara, the trauma is insufferable. Four months ago, her husband had been kidnapped by pirates. He had been released a few days later on ransom of Tk one lakh.
Nur Islam had not gone fishing for the last four months; but he had at his home mouths to feed. And the sea was his only resort to look to for that.
“He was hesitant about going fishing all these months, but necessity forced him to return to the sea,” said Jannatul, who was born and raised in a fisherman’s family.
Before leaving home on Monday, Nur Islam promised to Jannatul that it would be his “last trip to the sea” and that he would find some other work on return.
Those words keep coming back to Jannatul.“I won’t let my son to go fishing on the sea,” she said.
Abdullah, 46, of the same village has lost a brother at the hands of the pirates. Himself a fisherman, he has two more brothers who live on fishing. But Abdullah has seen enough.
“After their return [from the sea] I won’t let them fish again,” he told this correspondent.
NO SECURITY ON SEA
More than three hundred fishing boats go sailing from an area stretching from Farir Mukh Ghat to Sarkarbazar of Shekherkhil. Fishermen say they get no security from any agencies in case of pirate attacks.
Nurul Kabir, a fisherman, says pirates usually kidnap fishermen and demand ransom.
He adds that police can find them by tracking the phone calls of those who demand ransom.
Conducted, Officer-in-charge Kamrul Islam of Banshkhali Police Station said they were looking for the pirates involved in last week’s incident.
Lt Commander Abdullah Yusuf, staff officer of Bangladesh Coast Guard’s east zone, said it was difficult for them to respond to emergency call for help due to manpower shortages.
But, he added, they deployed patrol teams in different areas, including Chittagong Port outer anchorage, Banshkhali, Maheshkhali, Cox’s Bazaar, Kutubdia channel and St Martin’s Island.
Thursday 4 April 2013
http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/6-more-bodies-found-toll-27/
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