Kolkata, February 16: The Indian Coast Guard has seized a Bangladeshi trawler for allegedly violating maritime boundaries and entering Indian waters. A total of 28 Bangladeshi fishermen were also taken into custody during the operation.
On Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard transported the trawler and the fishermen to the Fraser Ganj Fisheries Port in South 24 Parganas district.
The operation began when Coast Guard patrols spotted a suspicious trawler in the Bay of Bengal within Indian territorial waters. Upon ordering the vessel to stop, it was identified as the Bangladeshi trawler ‘Sagar 3’.
After the seizure, officials conducted preliminary questioning of the fishermen. Discrepancies were noted in their responses, as they failed to explain why they crossed into Indian waters.
Along with the arrest of the 28 fishermen, the Coast Guard seized the trawler and brought it ashore. The fishermen were handed over to the Fraser Ganj coastal police station, which later formally arrested them.
Police are currently interrogating the detainees to uncover the reasons behind the incursion.
Biswa Chand Thakur, the Superintendent of Police for Sundarbans, stated, “We are questioning the arrested individuals to determine if they are part of a larger smuggling operation. Investigations are also underway to find out if there have been previous attempts to breach Indian waters.”
He added that surveillance along the India-Bangladesh maritime border has already been intensified.
Initial inquiries revealed that some of the arrested individuals claimed they were attempting to bring a Bangladeshi national, Rabindranath Das, into Indian territory under the guise of fishing. Reports suggest he was being transported across the border on the trawler when the Coast Guard, patrolling the area, spotted the vessel and initiated the operation.
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