Two and a half tonnes of jatka, young hilsa, were seized while being smuggled in a refrigerated covered van in Sitakunda, Chattogram. The fish were seized on the morning of 2 February in the Bar Aulia area of Sitakunda on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway.

The upazila fisheries office, the Bhatiary unit of the Bangladesh Coast Guard's East Zone and Bar Aulia Highway Police Station conducted the drive jointly. The jatka had a market value of about Tk 9 lakh. After legal action they were handed over to a local orphanage.

Sitakunda upazila fisheries officer Md Motasim Billah said that, acting on a tip-off, they learned an organised gang was collecting jatka from different places in Chattogram and taking them to Dhaka in a refrigerated covered van. In the presence of highway police and officials of the coast guard's East Zone Bhatiary unit, the van was stopped and searched, and two and a half tonnes of jatka were recovered.

He said buying, selling and transporting jatka is completely banned. The seized fish, with a market value of about Tk 9 lakh, have been given to a local orphanage.

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