Balasore, September 23(Odisha.in) At last, as luck would have it, 11 Bangladeshi fishermen who spent two nights floating on the rough deep sea in Bay of Bengal managed to reach the sea shore at Barahazar near Chandipur
in Balasore district on Sunday morning.
“We had been without food or drinking water for the last two nights after our vessel sank in the sea. We were so weak that few hours delay would have killed us,” said Mohammad Alias Akur Majhi, the main crew member of the vessel.
Akur Majhi along with ten other fishermen from Badma, Bangladesh was headed in a vessel for fishing. But the cyclonic storm in the Bay of Bengal drifted the vessel towards Orissa coast and lastly the vessel sank in the sea.
“We were hungry and terribly thirsty. Most of us tried to drink sea water against my advice and they were soon ill. We are happy now as we have been saved,” added Md Simayatuddin Hawldar, the vessel driver.
The trawlers owners of Balaramgadi fishing base who found the fishermen floating rescued them with the help of nets and fishing vessels.
“We have provided them food and medical treatment. It is learnt that the vessel called A B Nurunnahar belongs to one Abdul Fatar Okil of Badma, Bangladesh,” said Niranjan Das, a trawler owner.
Meanwhile, police have reached at the spot and collected information about the Bangla fishermen.
“We are now verifying whether they have valid document to trespass into Indian water and mainland. We are interrogating them to know whether the fishing vessel obtained any permission from the government of India to fish in the Indian sea water,” said DIG (eastern range) B P Mohapatra.
Odisha.in