Coastguard killed after encounter with pirates
One each from Rab, Coast Guard missing
Staff Correspondent, Khulna
One Coast Guard member was killed and one each from the Coast Guard and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) went missing following an encounter between the law enforcers and a gang of pirates in the Pashur estuary near Mongla on Friday night.Coast Guard Amirul Islam, his colleague Kabir and Rab personnel Kanchan fell in the river with their firearms after a fight with the pirates. The body of Amirul and his firearms were recovered from the place of incident after a massive recovery operation by the Navy, Rab and Coast Guard yesterday. Navy divers were searching for the missing two as of 9:00pm yesterday. Commanding Officer of Rab-6 Lt Col Shams told The Daily Star that during a joint drive of Coast Guard and Rab in the River Pashur, the law enforcers challenged an engine boat carrying the pirates in Mongla Channel at around 9:30pm. Being challenged, the pirates opened fire on them to which they also retaliated in self-defence, the Rab commander said. At one stage of the clash, the criminals stopped firing and the joint team members got a chance to get on board the engine boat. "As the joint team members boarded the pirates' boat, the criminals wrestled with them and hit them with sticks," Lt Col Shams said. During this scuffle, four joint team members, fell in the river. One of them, Captain Mehedi of Rab, however, managed to swim back to the boat, while the rest three went missing. By this time, the pirates jumped into the river and swam across it. The law enforcers seized the engine boat of the pirates and recovered 40 rounds of ammunition and two mobile phone sets from the boat.
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