Coast Guard rescued 5 hostages, seized arms in twin Sundarbans operations
Staff Correspondent
In two separate operations conducted under specialized anti-bandit drives in the Sundarbans, the Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued five kidnapped fishermen and seized a large stash of arms and ammunition on Tuesday.
Coast Guard Media Officer Lieutenant Commander Sabbir Alam Sujon disclosed this in a press release on Tuesday afternoon.
The drives were executed as part of two ongoing specialized operations—"Operation Restore Peace in Sundarbans" and "Operation Mangrove Shield"—spearheaded by the Bangladesh Coast Guard to eradicate active forest bandit syndicates and secure coastal regions.
Acting on a tip-off that the notorious 'Sattar Bahini' bandit gang had taken several fishermen hostage for ransom in the Gandhar Khal area along the Arshipsa River in Koyra, Khulna, a joint team from Coast Guard Station Koyra and Station Dobeki launched an operation at around 4:00 am on Tuesday. Sensing the arrival of law enforcement, the bandits fled deep into the mangrove forest, abandoning their captives.
Subsequent searches of the area led to the recovery of a wooden dinghy containing four locally made one-shooter guns, six live cartridges, and 13 blank cartridges. Five abducted fishermen—identified as Jahurul Islam (27), Farooq Gazi (42), Rezaul Karim (26), Nurul Huda (23), and Hasan Gazi (27), all hailing from Koyra upazila—were rescued unharmed.
In a separate action at 11:00 am on Tuesday, a joint team from Coast Guard Base Mongla and Coast Guard Station Nalian raided the Kumrakhali Khal area under Dacope upazila in Khulna following intelligence that an armed gang had assembled to commit robberies. Although the suspects escaped into the dense forest upon detecting the patrol, a thorough search of the perimeter yielded four single-barrel guns, one .22 caliber rifle, 20 live cartridges, 52 rounds of .22 caliber ammunition, and two magazines hidden in a concealed information.
Formal legal proceedings regarding the seized arms a and steps have been taken to reunite the rescued fishermen with their families.
