"After two hours of thorough search, the Indian Coast Guard members got off our trawler and allowed us to go. Around half an hour later, they again called us back saying they left some devices on our boat. We went to them in good faith. We had no idea that we would be trapped."

Rajib Chandra Shil, captain of FV Layla-2 -one of the two Bangladeshi fishing trawlers that were detained by the Indian Coast Guard last month, was recounting the ordeal to the Daily Star this morning

The Bangladesh Coast Guard today handed over 90 Bangladeshi fishermen and sailors to their families at a Coast Guard Jetty at Patenga.

The crewmen, detained by Indian Cost Guards on December 9, were handed over to Bangladesh Coast Guard by Indian authorities during a prison exchange programme on January 5 and brought to Chattogram last night.

After weeks of anxious wait, the family members finally reunited with the crew. Some couldn't hold back tears of joy.

On December 9 last year, the Indian Coast Guard detained the two trawlers FV Layla-2 and FV Meghna-5 along with 78 fishermen and sailors for alleged unauthorised fishing in Indian waters and took them to Paradip port in Odisha of India.

Rajib said a patrol vessel of the Indian Coast Guard asked them to halt around 7:00am that day when they were fishing in Bangladesh waters at the Swatch of No Ground (SoNG), around 30 km from the Dublar Char Islands in the Sundarbans.

"In the vast sea, there is no clear boundary line. We were very close to Bangladesh maritime boundary, "Rajib said.

He, however, said that while fishing in that region, trawlers sometimes mistakenly cross the boundary due to strong currents.

Then the Indians got on board his trawler and carried out a thorough search for around two hours and allowed them to go, said the captain.

The Indians then searched another trawler nearby, FV Megna-5.

"Around half an hour later, they directed an officer of Mghna-5 to call us back, saying that they left some devices here during the search. They also assured us that they would let us go after that," Rajib said, adding that they obeyed the order.

When they reached there, they were captured.

After taking them to Paradip port, the Indian Maritime Police checked them at its office and later allowed them to go back to the trawlers.

"They said no cases will be filed against us," Rajib recalled.

Since then, several officials of the Indian Coast Guard kept telling them that they would be released only after the Bangladesh authority freed 95 Indian fishermen detained here in Bangladesh, claimed the captain.

Earlier in October last year, the Bangladesh Coast Guard and Bangladesh Navy separately detained six Indian fishing trawlers with those 95 Indian fishermen for fishing illegally in Bangladeshi waters.

On September 12, Indian Coast Guard rescued 12 Bangladeshi fishermen after their fishing boat FV Koushik capsized near the Bangladesh-India International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), according to an official of Bangladesh Coast Guard. The 12 were detained and taken to Haldia Port in Kolkata.

Bangladesh Coast Guard East Zone Zonal Commander Captain Zahirul Hoque told the journalists yesterday that the exchange of detained fishermen and crew were done as part of a bilateral agreement between the two countries.

The 95 Indian fishermen and six boats were handed over to the Indian Coast Guard under the supervision of the Bangladesh Coast Guard at the IMBL, he said.

Simultaneously, India handed over 90 Bangladeshi fishermen and two fishing boats, he added.

A Coast Guard patrol boat escorted the two fishing trawlers from Khulna to Chattogram last night and the fishermen and crew were handed over to their families through police this morning, he informed.