8 more fishermen jailed, 11 buyers fined

A mobile court in Nagarpur upazila on Tuesday sentenced eight fishermen to 10 days' imprisonment each for defying a 22-day ban on netting hilsa till October 28.

Upazila Nirbahi Officer Asma Shahin passed the order against Sanwar Hossain, Ibrahim Miah, Ramzan Ali, Mohammad Ali, Lutfar Rahman, Osman Gani, Ali Azam and Abul Kalam Azad. The convicts were later sent to jail.

The court also realised a total of Tk 8,200 from 11 people for buying hilsa.

Earlier, the mobile court conducted the drive beside the Jamuna river in Char Solimabad area and seized around 10 maunds of hilsa and two thousand metres of current nets.

Later, the seized fishes were distributed among different orphanages in the upazila while the current nets were burnt, said UNO Asma.

The drive will continue till the ban ends, she added.

Meanwhile, River Police in Bhuapur upazila conducted drives at different places near the Jamuna on Tuesday night and seized seven thousand metres of current nets.

Yesterday, the seized current nets were burnt in front of the upazila parishad premises in presence of UNO Jhoton Chanda.

Away in Chandpur, over 5,000 fishermen and local people in the district yesterday joined a boat procession on the Meghna river to create awareness about protecting mother hilsa, reports our correspondent.

More than 200 fishing boats went along the 10-kilometre area of the river, from Katakhali to Char Bhairab, as part of the procession organised by Haimchar Upazila Parishad.

Earlier, the upazila parishad organised a discussion on 'protection of the mother hilsa' in Katakhali.

Lawmaker from Chandpur-3 constituency Dipu Moni and Deputy Commissioner Mazedur Rahman spoke at the programme.