Seventy-nine Bangladeshi fishermen and sailors, who were captured by the Indian Coast Guard while fishing on Monday, are yet to be released, leaving family members concerned.
Sources said the Indian Coast Guard took away the Bangladeshis along with the two fishing trawlers they were on - FV Meghna-5 and FV Laila-2 - from the Khulna region of the Bay of Bengal, where they were fishing on Monday afternoon.
The owners of the two vessels said they were trying to get back the trawlers, but unable to establish any contact with India.
Mintu Kumar Saha, chief commercial official of Laila Group, said they came to know that the trawlers were being taken towards the Indian coastal state of Odisha, but "didn’t know why the trawlers and fishermen were captured despite fishing in Bangladeshi maritime territory only".
Md Abdus Sattar, director (maritime) at maritime fisheries office, said they, including Coast Guard and Navy, have started activities to bring back the trawlers with everyone on them as soon as possible.
Sailors’ organizations and trawlers’ owners demanded immediate release of the captured fishermen and hoped that the government would take measures in this regard.
Throughout Monday and much of Tuesday, Indian media gave this story a total pass. It was only around Tuesday evening that it started appearing on some outlets, after PTI reported on the basis of a Coast Guard statement.
Not surprisingly, the Indian side's version is significantly different. Rather, it said the vessels -- "FV Laila-2 and FV Meghna-5, were found engaged in unauthorised fishing activities in Indian waters near the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), violating the international maritime laws and bilateral agreements."
It also said approximately 160 tonnes of fish were found in the two vessels. Subsequently, the vessels and the crew members were taken to Paradip in Odisha, as some have suspected, for what it called "further investigation". The two vessels have also been booked under the Maritime Zones of India Act, 1981, says the PTI report.
Another minor difference is that Bangladesh is saying 79 detained, but India acknowledges only 78, with 41 from FV Laila-2 and 37 on FV Meghna-5.
