DHAKA, 13 May 2006 — Some 70 Bangladeshi fishermen are being held hostage in the Bay of Bengal by pirates demanding thousands of dollars in ransom money, police said yesterday. The pirates hijacked eight trawlers at gunpoint on Wednesday.
They then allowed a couple of fishermen to return to port in one of the boats with a ransom demand. The freed fishermen, who arrived back on Thursday, were given a mobile phone with which to contact the bandits and told their colleagues would be killed if they failed to return with the money, police inspector Abdul Kuddus told AFP. “They were told to get 100,000 taka ($1,587) for each of the seven boats from the trawler owners and the families,” he said.
Nine Killed in Storm
At least nine people were killed and 36 injured as violent storms lashed Sirajganj, Meherpur, Manikganj and Jhenidah districts leaving a trail of devastation.
The northwester, lasting 45 minutes, also razed about 50,000 mud-and-straw houses and damaged paddy crops on a vast tract of land.
