"At least two to three incidents of robbery or theft or pilferage of goods are suffered by the ships anchored at Bangladeshi ports every week," said Sayeed Hossain Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship Owners Association (Bogsoa).

To check such crimes, local and foreign ship owners hire additional five to six security guards for every ship when it anchors at a Bangladeshi port or waits at outer anchorage, he told The Daily Star.

This was not required in any other ports in the world, he said, adding the extra security measure was one of the reasons for the increasing cost of using Bangladeshi ports.

Admitting the recent sharp rise in armed robberies and thefts, Director General of shipping department Captain Ahsanul Azim said a committee headed by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) chairman had been assigned with the specific responsibility to take measures and steps to suppress such crimes at both Chittagong and Mongla ports.

The committee formed in an inter-ministerial meeting in November 2000 "is solely responsible for the task," he said, without making further comments.

Since then, the committee met several times but could not draw any effective strategy to counter such incidents, sources alleged. The shipping department sent numbers of letters to the committee urging it to hold regular meetings and take effective measures to improve the country's image abroad, they added.

Records at the shipping department show armed robbers attacked more than a dozen foreign and local ocean-going ships anchored at Chittagong and Mongla ports in a five-month span. Besides, many thefts go unreported, according to sources in the department.

But a high official at the shipping department said the situation has taken an alarming turn, as the number of such crimes in Bangladeshi ports has increased to no less than half a dozen a month.

According to the records, around 20 robbers, armed with knives and axes, boarded the ship Bright Star at Mongla Port on June 2 last. The marauders cut off the ship's mooring ropes and stayed on board for about 30 minutes. But the watch guard on duty did not come forward to confront them, even after repeated calls, sources alleged.

On July 9, seven armed robbers attacked the MV Banga Biraj, held the deck crew hostage and fled with valuables from its storeroom, the ship informed the Piracy Reporting Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

The other ocean liners robbed at Chittagong and Mongla ports, from March to July 10, were; MV Prospects, MV Capean Michels, MV Andhika Aryandhi, MV Commander Express, MV Garrison Savanah, MV Jala Doot, MV Sea Cars and MV Thor Falcon.

Contacted, Shipping Minister Akbar Hossain said the government had taken up an initiative for strengthening Bangladesh Coastguard to enable it keep a constant surveillance on the outer anchorage and the channels to stop such incidents.

Under this scheme, Tk 5 crore has already been disbursed to the Coastguard for procuring two patrol vessels. The vessels are now being fabricated and likely to start operating next year, the minister hoped.

Bangladesh Navy has also been asked to increase patrol in the Bay, he added.

CPA Chairman Shahadat Hossain refuted the allegation of armed robbery and pilferage on foreign ships at the port channel, saying sometimes some local engine boats had become victims of such robberies, but no foreign ships.

He claimed such robberies had stopped after introduction of measures like mandatory registration by all engine boats plying the channel and the outer anchorage, painting the registered vessels in orange, and ban on fishing in the area.

Law-enforcement agencies have also been asked to conduct regular raids on coastal villages where the stolen goods are usually sold, Shahadat said. The CPA has also decided to erect a high security tower to watch and monitor the channel round the clock, he added.

But, sources said the port authorities had failed to take effective measures to stop such incidents even after several warnings and reminders from International Maritime Organisation (IMO), International Maritime Bureau (IMB), and Department of Shipping.

A very common form of such robbery is attacking a ship with lethal weapons like knives and axes and cutting away mooring ropes and zinc annedes (safety plates). The robbers come equipped with cutting machines for removing the annedes from beneath the ship. There are about 20 to 30 such annedes in a ship.

The robbers sell their booty in the local market for hefty cash. The price of a sizable mooring rope is more than Tk one lakh while a small piece of zinc annede fetches around Tk 6,000.

"We are always fearful of losing zinc plates, mooring ropes and other valuables from the ship whenever it anchors at Chittagong and Mongla, " said SK Abul Masum, a Bangladeshi Captain working in a Japanese ship.

According to Masum, although the damage from such an incident at Bangladeshi ports is not much high, it creates a bad reputation in the international maritime arena, as it is often reported as piracy. In comparison, the damages from such incidents at Kalna and Haldia in India, Indonesia, Somalia and the Malacca Strait between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore are very high. The pirates attack with sophisticated firearms and capture or divert the ships there, killing and injuring captains and crewmembers, Masum said, adding this type of savage piracy never happened in Bangladeshi waters.

According to Article 101 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a piracy is an armed robbery that occurs in a ship on high sea, outside jurisdiction of any state. Any other violence or detention or act of depredation directed against a ship or person or property on its board happened within the jurisdiction of a state is called an armed robbery.

The Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau compiles reports on all such criminal attacks on ships and the name of Bangladesh is often placed at the top because of the high frequency of such occurrences, Masum said.

The latest meeting of the committee, entrusted with minimising maritime crimes, was held in the first week of this month. The meeting has decided to form a task force which would sit every three months.

But sources at the shipping department doubted any progress in the near future, as the main committee itself could meet no more than three times in the last couple of years. Even the last meeting was held after repeated reminders by the shipping department, they pointed out.