In late July 2026 Bangladeshi fishermen from Kutubjom union in Maheshkhali upazila, Cox's Bazar, rescued two Sri Lankan fishermen from a disabled boat in the Bay of Bengal. The two men, father and son S H Chaminda and Saunda Hannadigipiyawating, had drifted for 36 days before the boat was spotted inside Bangladeshi waters by a trawler belonging to Ziaur Rahman, BBC Bangla reported on 28 July. His trawler carried eight fishermen.
Adrift since 19 June
Md Abdus Sultan, officer-in-charge of Maheshkhali police station, who spoke to the men through an interpreter, told BBC Bangla that four Sri Lankan fishermen had set out on 19 June. The engine failed in deep water and, unrepaired, the boat drifted towards Bangladesh. Two of the four went home on another vessel, but the father and son refused to abandon their boat.
According to Ziaur Rahman, once their food ran out the two men survived on raw fish. The Daily Star and the Dhaka Tribune, citing the fishermen, reported that during the drift the crew of another vessel attacked them and took the engine, battery, diesel and equipment. The Daily Star gave Chaminda's age as 51 and his son's as 30.
According to BBC Bangla, Sri Lanka lies about 1,300 nautical miles from Bangladesh by sea, and the two South Asian countries share no direct maritime boundary. The men live on Rural Hospital Road in Devinuwara, also known as Dondra, a town at the southernmost tip of Sri Lanka near Matara in the Southern Province.
A 14-hour tow from Gulirdhar
Ziaur Rahman told BBC Bangla that he saw a boat drifting one night in the Gulirdhar area of the Bay of Bengal. "When I got close I saw two people who could not even stand up from where they were sitting. I could not understand a word they said. They were asking for help with their hands. And they kept saying: Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan," he said, speaking in Bengali. He added that the two men also kept repeating two words: "Navy? Coastguard."
Because the Sri Lankans would not give up their boat, Rahman tied it to his trawler and, after about 14 hours, reached shore the next morning; the Dhaka Tribune reported that the boat was towed to Tajiyakatha Ghat in Maheshkhali. Once within mobile range, the men phoned their family over WhatsApp.
Rahman then informed the police and the coastguard, took the two men to his home, fed them and called a local doctor. After a day at his house he took them to Maheshkhali police station on the Saturday. One of the survivors told The Daily Star: "They not only rescued us but also fed us, sheltered us and treated us like members of their own family."
Repatriation and the fate of the boat
A Sri Lankan working at a Cox's Bazar hotel interpreted at the station, and the foreign ministry notified the Sri Lankan mission. Abdus Sultan told BBC Bangla that the Sri Lankan envoy telephoned him, spoke to the two men and assured them they would be taken home. Their photographs were sent to the mission for passports or travel passes. Saunda's daughter in Sri Lanka confirmed their identities to BBC Bangla and thanked the Bangladeshi fishermen and police.
Police applied to the court for the men to be moved from police custody into the care of the Department of Social Services. The Daily Ittefaq reported on 27 July that, under a court order, they were due to be transferred on the morning of 28 July to a government shelter in Mirpur-1, Dhaka.
The boat could not be sent back to Sri Lanka, police said, so the father and son offered it to Ziaur Rahman as a gift; it had been listed as seized before the court and could change hands only after the court process. Rahman told BBC Bangla he had helped them selflessly and would accept the boat if they wished to give it out of affection.
Maheshkhali is an island upazila in the Bay of Bengal covering 362.18 square kilometres, with a population of 385,510 at the 2022 census. Kutubjom is one of its eight unions, and fishing and salt production are its traditional livelihoods.
Photo: Tanvir Rahat / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Sources: BBC Bangla, The Daily Star, Dhaka Tribune, The Daily Ittefaq, Wikipedia
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