At least three Indian fishermen were killed and nine of their compatriots injured when a gang of nearly 20 armed pirates, suspected to be Bangladeshis, opened fire on their trawler near the Bay of Bengal on Friday. The pirates also abducted a dozen other Indian fishermen in a hijacked trawler. The dead included a father and son duo.
The Indian fishermen were from West Bengal. The missing persons are yet to be traced till the reports last came in. As the pirates were taking away fish, fishing nets and money of the Indian fishermen, five of them were caught.
The five were handed over to the police by the fishermen after their arrival at Kakdwip fishing harbour in South 24 Parganas in the week hours of Saturday. The accused were taken to the Kulpi police station. On Friday, a team of over two dozen fishermen, mostly from Kalinagar village of Kakdwip, left for fishing in the Bay of Bengal.
The attack on the three Indian trawlers Ma Tara, Ma Basanti-I and Ma Basanti-II took place at around 10 am, according to preliminary investigations. Flashing desi pistols the pirates, sailing in more than one boats, surrounded the three trawlers and demanded the fish, fishing nets and money.
Nandan Das, one of the fishermen on Basanti-I recounted the nightmare. “We did not give in. We put up a resistance. The pirates then launched the attack which continued for several hours,” he said. The three fishermen — Dulal Das, his son Sripon Das and Manohar Das — fell to their bullets. According to unconfirmed sources, the pirates took away the body of another fisherman.
They kidnapped over a dozen fishermen in Ma Tara trawler. The injured were admitted to Diamond Harbour sub divisional hospital where the three bodies were sent for postmortem. Three persons in critical condition were shifted to two city hospitals. SP (South 24 Parganas) Lakshmi Narayan Meena said, “The five pirates are being interrogated. A search operation is underway by the police and the Coast Guard for the fishing boat and the kidnapped fishermen.”