Our fishermen still risk their lives on the high seas at the hands of criminals

Country’s fishermen on the high seas have to brave all sorts of dangers, even risking their lives, when they take to the seas for their catch. It is not just like natural disasters like cyclones with which they have to struggle, they also have to confront robbers and pirates. Though officially we recognise the importance of the blue economy for our national growth; this is not reflected in our actions anyway.
Media reports said that the day after Eid-ul-Fitr, a sunken trawler was retrieved with 10 rotting bodies from a trawler abroad. It was perceptible that the fishermen had been killed in a brutal attack. All the dead persons were from Maheshkhali and Chokoria. Locals said the trawler had gone to sea on April 7. Two days later they heard that it had been sunk. As reported, the lives of thousands of fishermen along the coast are in a precarious condition. Yet these fishermen contribute considerably to meet our huge local demand for fish. Their fish brings in foreign exchange too.
A recent international report on the safety of fishermen said that over 1,350 fishermen in Bangladesh die at sea simply due to the lack of safety equipment. This number will go up if robbery, piracy and other security issues are also taken into account. While navigating the high seas has become safe nowadays due to the technological advancements and modern management system, we still remain lagging behind here in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, police have come out with two probabilities of the tragic incident — one, the trawler may have been attacked and sunk, and the 10 fishermen killed, as the result of some old enmity. Two, they think pirates may have looted the fish from the trawler on the high seas and sunk the vessel. The hands and feet of three of the dead fishermen were tied with rope. One of them was decapitated. They added the door of the room from which the bodies had been recovered was found to be nailed shut.
It is to be noted that our maritime disputes with India and Myanmar have been settled and Bangladesh’s legal rights to the ocean have been established. It has been a decade since then, yet we have failed to build up our security within our maritime boundaries.
We hope all the criminals are identified and given exemplary punishment. The harsh reality is that if safety at sea cannot be ensured, it will not be possible to bring an end to such tragic incidents.