Fifty-five fishermen have been detained while catching hilsa in the Padma river in Munshiganj in defiance of the fishing ban. A mobile court sentenced 37 of them to 15 days in jail each.

Officials of the upazila fisheries office conducted the drive to protect hilsa in different parts of the Padma near Louhajang upazila from midnight on Saturday (16 October) to Sunday morning (17 October), assisted by the river police and the Coast Guard. The upazila assistant commissioner (land) and executive magistrate Kawsar Hamid conducted the mobile court.

During the drive, 1.2 lakh metres of current net, a fishing boat and 250kg of hilsa were seized. After the drive, the mobile court sentenced the fishermen at noon for defying the ban.

Louhajang upazila fisheries officer Md Asaduzzaman Asad told Jagonews that the drive was conducted with the help of the river police, the Coast Guard and Ansar members to stop hilsa fishing during the ban, and 55 fishermen were detained. Of them, 37 were jailed for 15 days each. Of the rest, 17 were released on bond because they were minors, and one was a person with a disability.

He added that the seized hilsa were distributed at noon among local madrasas and orphanages, and the current nets were burnt.

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