The bodies of 18 fishermen recovered from the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday were handed over to their relatives on completion of all legal procedures and autopsy yesterday.
Of them, 13 were identified as Abdul Nur, Jahangir Alam, Mizanur Rahman, Delwar Hossain, Anwar Hossain, Saker Ullah, Rafiqul Islam, Abdur Rahim, Mohammand Alam, Mohammad Khalil, Furkan Azam, Mohammad Sagir and his sibling Nurul Islam.
Five bodies could not be identified as those were decomposed.
Assistant Superintendent of Police of Sadar Circle Md Khalequazzaman said the fishermen's corpses were handed over to their relatives at Shekherkhil in Banshkhali upazila of Chittagong district yesterday.
On Monday, a Coast Guard team found the bodies of some 20 fishermen near Kutubdia channel at Jahajfari while patrolling in the sea and recovered three bodies.
On Tuesday, Navy and Coast Guard personnel in a joint operation recovered 18 more bodies about four kilometres off Kutubdia lighthouse. The number of total recovered bodies rose to 21.
About a week ago, a gang of armed robbers swooped on the fishermen's trawlers when they were returning home after catching fish in the sea. The robbers kidnapped 36 fishermen along with two trawlers and then looted their valuables.