Myanmar Navy releases 22 Bangladeshi fishermen, 4 trawlers

The Myanmar Navy released 22 Bangladeshi fishermen and their four fishing trawlers on Saturday night after they were detained from the Bay of Bengal.

The fishermen arrived in Teknaf’s Saint Martin's Island jetty at around 10:30pm. The owners of trawlers are from the island.

Saint Martin's union parishad chairman Nur Ahmed and one of trawler owners Mohammad Azim confirmed the news to media.

Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Parvez Chowdhury said, “The Myanmar Navy released 22 Bangladeshi fishermen and their four fishing trawlers. Local chairman informed me that the trawlers with 22 fishermen on board returned to Saint Martin's Island yesterday (Saturday) night.”

Earlier, on Saturday, members of the Myanmar Navy detained the 22 Bangladeshi fishermen and seized their four trawlers from the Bay of Bengal.

Saint Martin's UP chairman Nur Ahmed said Myanmar Navy seized four of the trawlers owned by residents of the area with the 22 fishermen on board around 10:00am Saturday, from the east side of the island when they were out in the sea for fishing.

Border Guard of Bangladesh and the Coast Guard had been informed about the incident, said the UP chairman.

According to local fishermen, those 22 fishermen went in the sea around Friday evening on trawlers owned by Nurul Amin, Mohammad Azim, Md Hossain and Md Younus.

Some members of Myanmar Navy crossed the maritime boundary on Saturday morning and took control of the trawlers at gunpoint, they said.

Trawler owner Mohammad Azim said his trawler was taken with six fishermen on board, along with the other three trawlers.