2 arrested over recovery of 10 bodies in trawler

Police arrested two persons after a case was filed yesterday in connection with the recovery of 10 partially decomposed bodies from inside the locked cold storage of a sinking fishing trawler off the coast of Nazirartek in Cox's Bazar on Sunday.

Rokeya Begum, the wife of Shamsu Majhi, the alleged owner of the trawler, filed a case with Cox's Bazar Sadar Police Station on Tuesday afternoon over the incident.

At a press briefing yesterday afternoon, Cox's Bazar Superintendent of Police Md Mahfuzul Islam said the case has been filed against four named and 60 unnamed accused.

Police have arrested two of the accused – Baitta Kamal, the owner of a trawler in the Matarbari area, and Karim Sikder, the navigator of that trawler, the SP said.

The other two named accused are Anwar Hossain, brother of Baitta Kamal and owner of another trawler in Matarbari, and Babul Majhi, the navigator of another trawler owned by Shukkur company.

The SP said the arrestees admitted their involvement in the incident during the preliminary interrogation. They will be sent to court for remand for further interrogation, he said.

Mahfuzul Islam said no clue of the incident has been confirmed so far. Multiple units of police are investigating the matter keeping a few issues in mind.

For the sake of the case, the relatives of the deceased, whose names are coming up, will be interrogated, he said.

A number of important questions have arisen since the bodies were found, said the SP, adding that the investigators will try to find answers to these questions.

Meanwhile, Delwar Hossain, general secretary of Cox's Bazar District Fishing Boat Owners' Association, told The Business Standard that the recovered trawler had no name on it. The trawler is also not listed with the association.

"We have doubts whether the bodies found are of real fishermen. They looked more like sea robbers," he said.

According to a police source, six fishermen who returned to shore on 11 April told several fishermen that Samshu Majhi's trawler with 19 people on board was attacked by a group of four-five fishing trawlers on allegation of robbery. The owners of these attacking fishing trawlers locked some robbers inside the cold storage of the trawler and left.

Cox's Bazar SP Md Mahfuzul Islam said five police teams are working to find out what actually happened. Apart from this, a matter related to drugs has also come to the fore over this incident. 

Meanwhile, the bodies of six people were handed over to their relatives, while four bodies remained in the morgue. The identity of these four people will be confirmed through the DNA test.