Attempted robbery on tourist ship in Sundarbans foiled by forest guards
Ali Azim, Mongla (Bagerhat)
Forest guards have foiled an attempt to rob a tourist ship in the Katka Sanctuary area of the Eastern Sundarbans by firing four rounds. The incident took place on the tourist ship 'The Wave-2' anchored at the sea estuary of the Katka Canal in the Sundarbans at around 9 pm on Saturday (October 3).
Forester Tanvir Hasan Imran, the officer-in-charge of the Katka Sanctuary Center in the Sharankhola Range of the Sundarbans, confirmed this information on his mobile phone at 11 pm on Saturday, saying, "An unidentified group of bandits approached the tourist ship 'The Wave-2' anchored in the Katka Canal at the Sagir Estuary of the Sundarbans around 9 pm in a motor-driven fishing trawler. At that time, fishermen in the sea at the Katka Estuary informed us about this on their mobile phones. We immediately chased the bandits with our boat. At one stage, we started firing at the bandits. In the face of the gunfire, the bandits changed the course of their trawler and quickly headed towards the sea."
Currently, 'The Wave-2' and another tourist ship 'Aralsi' are anchored in Cuttack. There are 97 domestic and foreign tourists on the two ships, said Md. Shamim Alam, master of the tourist ship 'The Wave-2', on his mobile phone.
Md. Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the Sundarbans East Division in Bagerhat, said that the news of forest robbers approaching a tourist ship in Katka is a terrifying incident. This has not happened before.
He also said that recently, the activities of forest pirates have increased in the Sundarbans. They are taking fishermen hostage and demanding ransom. Coast Guard patrols in the Sundarbans need to be strengthened to curb forest pirates.
