River police have detained 12 fishermen for catching hilsa in the sanctuary area of the Padma and Meghna rivers in Chandpur in defiance of the ban imposed to protect breeding.

Of them, four were jailed by a mobile court, regular cases were filed against five, and three were released on bond because they are minors.

H M Iqbal, officer-in-charge (OC) of Chandpur river police station, confirmed the information at around 10pm on Friday (1 November).

The jailed fishermen are Ekram Molla (18), Nazmul Hasan (20), Shahar Ali (19) and Jumman Howlader (19). Those accused in regular cases are Raju Soyal (22), Md Mainuddin (38), Md Kashem Bakaul (45), Md Alamgir Gazi (24) and Md Musa Kalimullah (25). The teenage fishermen released on bond are Md Sakib Soyal (15), Md Habib Soyal (16) and Md Naim Hossain (13).

River police said they ran the operation in the sanctuary area with the help of the task force from Thursday night until 8.30pm on Friday. During it, 1.5 lakh metres of current net, 42 kg of mother hilsa and three old wooden fishing boats were seized.

OC H M Iqbal said the seized boats and current nets are being held as evidence in the cases. The seized hilsa were distributed among poor and destitute people.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.