‘Take steps to bring back our loved ones’

Family members of 27 fishermen, who were imprisoned by Myanmar authorities after allegedly entering Myanmar’s territorial waters in December last year and March this year, gathered at Shahbagh Intersection in Dhaka yesterday, demanding that the government secure their relatives’ return.

With support from a volunteer organisation named Swapno Niye Foundation, the families, mostly from the country’s coastal districts, stood in the rain at Shahbagh, seeking the intervention of the prime minister.

Alauddin, from Ramgati in Lakshmipur, said his younger brother and a cousin were among those detained.

“I received a phone call from my brother three days after Eid-ul-Fitr, when he told me that he was among 16 crew members being held in Akyab after Myanmar’s coast guards detained them for entering the country’s waters,” Alauddin said.

Of the detained fishermen, eight were from Noakhali’s Subarnachar, seven from Ramgati in Lakshmipur, while others were from Bakalia in Chattogram, Char Fasson and Daulatkhan in Bhola, Kaukhali in Pirojpur, Chandina in Cumilla, and Gorakghata in Cox’s Bazar.

While many of the 16 fishermen detained in December managed to contact their families, the whereabouts of the 11 who disappeared in March remain unclear, family members said.

One of them is Mohammad Alamgir, 54. His daughter, Jesmin Begum, broke down in tears as she said, “Please do something to bring my father back. I have no one except him.”

Jesmin also alleged that a fishing company had forced her father to join the fishing voyage. She added that she had sued the company, but the accused later secured bail.

According to the Special Branch of the police, verification reports regarding all 27 fishermen have been received from 10 districts and are scheduled to be forwarded to the home ministry today.