Twenty-four fishermen have been detained in Chandpur for catching hilsa in defiance of the ban. A special river police task force carried out the drive on the Meghna from 1:30am to dawn on Saturday, 11 October.

Imtiaz Ahmed, assistant superintendent of police for the river police's Chandpur region, confirmed the information at noon on Saturday.

He said patrols were carried out at different points on the Meghna and Padma rivers. During the drive, 21 people were detained with boats and nets in five cases at Chandpur river police station, and three in two cases at the Harinaghat river police outpost. Legal action against them is under way at the relevant police station.

The drive was led by the river police's additional DIG (Operations), Probir Kumar Roy. Present were the superintendent of the river police's Chandpur region, Syed Moshfiqur Rahman; district fisheries officer Sribas Chandra Chanda; Sadar upazila assistant commissioner (land) Bappi Dutta Roni; Chandpur Sadar senior upazila fisheries officer Mirza Omar Faruk; and members of the Coast Guard's Chandpur station and the river police.

After the drive, additional DIG Probir Kumar Roy said the river police are always active to make the government's 22-day mother hilsa conservation campaign a success. Strict legal action will be taken against those catching hilsa during the banned period, in coordination with the district administration, river police, Department of Fisheries, Coast Guard and local administration. "Our aim is to protect mother hilsa and secure a sustainable hilsa resource for future generations," he said.

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