After a harrowing, ten-day ordeal, Salek Majhi is physically free from the clutches of pirates but still shackled to the financial burden of his costly release.
Salek, 60, was one of ten men who sailed from coastal Patharghata to catch the popular hilsha fish in late July. A small group of armed pirates attacked their boat and forced it towards the Sundarbans, the vast mangrove forest that stretches along the Bay of Bengal in Bangladesh and India.
“As they reached their den, they started beating some of our fellows just to create panic,” Salek said. “We begged for our lives and they demanded a hefty ransom. The men were groaning in pain, forcing me to contact our owner for immediate ransom payment,” Salek told Khabar South Asia.
The armed goons held them on board for four days until another group under the notorious Raju Bahini (Force) overpowered the first with gunshots. The second band of pirates whisked the fishermen to another location and put a price of Tk 200,000 ($2,500) per person on their heads.
“While in their hands, we dedicated every moment to praying to the Almighty Allah,” Salek said. “It was a horrifying experience. Whenever there was whispering in their group, we all looked at each other, fearing we could be shot at any moment.”
The trawler’s owner finally secured their release by paying Tk 100,000 (US $ 1,250) each– double the typical earnings of a fisherman in the five-month fishing season. Now Salek and the others must pay him back.
“I do not know when I would be in a position to repay the money,” said Salek, who is the father of six children. He lives in Latakata village, in the Patharghata upazila (Subdistrict).
“Without repaying I cannot even think of going to another trawler owner,” he added.
Salek was one of 60 fishermen recently held by pirates operating in and around the Sundarbans. The situation became so bad at one point that the hilsha supply at the country’s second-largest fishing station dropped to four tonnes a day, from the usual 25 tonnes.
Fearful of being snatched at sea, fishermen stayed home and protested, demanding authorities make the Bay of Bengal pirate-free.
Then, on August 10th, the Coast Guard, with the help of the Navy and Air Force, carried out an unprecedented two-day combing operation against armed groups in the western side of the sea. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) carried out backup operations in the eastern sea.
The operation led to the release of at least 35 captives who were freed without ransom as their kidnappers fled into the Sundarbans. They were later apprehended.
Golam Mostofa Chowdhury, president of Barguna Trawler Owners Association, told Khabar that fishermen cannot even sleep at sea because of piracy threats.
“The latest operations have helped us a lot to resume fishing,” Chowdhury said. But the problem is, “the dormant forces become active again as soon as the Coast Guard leaves”.
Lieutenant Commander K. M. Mamunur Rashid, Staff Officer (Operations) with the Coast Guard, told Khabar the co-ordinated rescue operation in August was the first of its kind in history.
He said one gang of pirates comprises up to 45 members, and at least such 10 groups are active on the western side of the Sundarbans, where the concentration of hilsha is higher.
“We have heard that the Raju Bahini chief has escaped to the Indian side of the Sundarbans,” Rashid told Khabar. “But we cannot go there.”
Coast Guard officials say the pirates cannot be vanquished completely without bilateral co-operation between Bangladesh and India.
“This is a matter to be settled at the state level. We at the field level cannot do it,” Captain M. Abidur Rahman, Coast Guard Operations Director, told Khabar.
Outdated equipment is another obstacle to securing the Bay of Bengal.
“We could have crushed the pirates if we had modern vessels and GPS facilities,” Zonal Commander of Coast Guard West Saidur Rahman told Khabar.