River police in separate drives arrested 60 fishermen from the rivers of the Padma and Meghna sanctuary area with current nets and Jatka fishes in the last 24-hour till Thursday morning (April 6) in Haimchar upazila of the district for defying the ban on Hilsa fishing.

Haimchar Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Chai Twaihla Chowdhury and Hajiganj Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Md Mehdi Hasan Manik conducted the mobile courts.

Among the detained fishermen, 44 were sentenced to various terms imprisonment and sent to jail, five were fined Taka 1,000 each and fined eleven minors Taka 1000 each and released them.

The mobile courts seized 100 kgs of jatka, 1,20,000 meters of current nets and one fishing boat during the drive.

The seized jatka were distributed among the local poor and orphans and current nets were destroyed by fire.

The government imposed a two-month ban on catching jatka to increase the production of hilsa in the Padma-Meghna sanctuary under Chandpur, Shariatpur, Lakshmipur, Barishal, and Bhola districts.

Seventy kilometers sanctuary of Meghna in Sadar, Haimchar, Matlab North, and Matlab South upazilas of the Chandpur district are also under restriction.

Those who violate the ban are subjected to a maximum of two years imprisonment, a fine of Taka 5,000, or both, Haimchar upazila assistant fisheries officer Mahbub Rashid told journalists.

BDST: 1748 HRS, APRIL 06, 2023
MSK/SMS