A mobile court has detained nine fishermen for illegally catching hilsa in the river in Companiganj, Noakhali. Each was fined Tk 3,000, a total of Tk 27,000, and released on bond.

Upazila nirbahi officer Md Anwar Hossain Patwari collected the fines at noon on Thursday, 17 October, after warning them for the future. They had been detained before dawn in the regulator area of Ward 7 of Musapur union.

The fined men, all from Ward 7 of Musapur union in Companiganj upazila, are Rakibul Hasan (22), Mojibur Rahman Badsha (22), Md Shakil (21), Saiful Islam (30), Sajib (24), Rifat (20), Zahir Islam (28), Md Yusuf (22) and Abdul Mannan (42).

Companiganj upazila fisheries officer Md Ashraful Islam Sarkar said they were detained with nets in a pre-dawn raid on a tip-off. When produced before the executive magistrate of the mobile court, they confessed and asked for forgiveness, and were released after being fined.

Upazila nirbahi officer Md Anwar Hossain Patwari said the fishermen were detained on the fourth day of the 22-day ban to protect mother hilsa. Catching, transporting, stockpiling, marketing, buying, selling and exchanging hilsa will be banned across the country until 3 November, and strict action will be taken against violators, he said.

A 22-day ban on hilsa fishing in all rivers and the Bay of Bengal has been in force from midnight on 12 October to 3 November.

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