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| Bangladesh | |
| Pirates loot 22 trawlers, abduct 40 fishermen | |
| 2009-08-20 | |
[Bangla Daily Star] Pirates looted 22 fishing trawlers and abducted 40 fishermen along the Barguna coast of the Bay of Bengal in the dead of night on Tuesday.
Golam Mostafa Chowdhury, president of the Patharghata Fish Warehouse Association, quoting bullet-hit Abdul Jalil of Tangra under Patharghata upazila told The Daily Star the fishermen took shelter at Khochikhali after fishing in the Bay due to gusty wind. Pirates swooped on them at about 2:30am and looted fish, nets, money, engine and other valuables from the trawlers, beat them up and opened fire on them, he added. The pirates also took away three trawlers along with 40 fishermen. They demanded Tk 20 lakh as ransom for their release and gave an address to other fishermen for the payment, said fishermen who returned to Pathargata Wednesday afternoon. The abducted fishermen include Ali Akbar, Joinal Mazi, Abdul Barek, Dulal Hossain, Yunus Ali, Mansur Ali and Abdul Latif. They all hail from Patharghat upazila of Barguna. Injured fishermen Abdul Jalil told local journalists that the pirates threatened to kill the fishermen if the ransom is not paid within a week. Yasin Ali, coastguard officer of Patharghata, told The Daily Star that they were trying to rescue the fishermen and track down the pirates. Nurul Amin, officer-in-charge of the Patharghata Police Station, said a case was filed with the police station in this connection. The injured fishermen were admitted to the Patharghata Upazila Health Complex, the OC added. | |
| Posted by:Fred |