92 Burmese fishermen were arrested by the Bangladeshi navy and sent to the Cox's Bazaar Jail on 10 December according to the head of Teknaf police, Ataur Rahman Khandakar.
He said: "They were produced at Cox's Bazaar Court on 10 December where Judge Mohamed Tafique Aziz ordered that they be sent to jail."
According to a statement from Saint Martin's Naval Station the Burmese fishermen were arrested by the Dhaleshwari, a Bangladesh Navy ship patrolling in the Bay of Bengal, after it stopped 12 fishing trawlers for suspicious movements near to Saint Martin's Island.
Lieutenant Kibria, the commander of the navy's Saint Martin station, said that because the fishing trawlers could show no valid documentation the navy seized the trawlers and detained the 92 crew members for fishing within Bangladesh's maritime boundary.
According to local people from the border area the the fishermen are Burmese and mostly from the Arakan State capital Akyab (Sittwe).
Mr. Kutubuddin a naval captain from Saint Martin's said that the arrested fishermen, the 12 trawlers and their catch of many different types of fish worth about 100.8 million Taka (approx. $1.28 million USD) were handed over to the Teknaf police on 9 December so that they could carry out further investigations.
Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI
