Indian fishermen beaten up in Bangladesh jail, says Mamata Banerjee after felicitating them

The West Bengal CM handed over cheques of Rs 10,000 to each of them as a token of assistance to start life afresh.

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that the state’s fishermen, who were recently repatriated to India after spending about two months in the jails in Bangladesh, had been tortured when they were incarcerated in the neighbouring country.

A day after Bangladesh Coast Guard handed over the 95 fishermen to the Indian Coast Guard near the maritime boundary between the two nations, Banerjee met them in Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

“I found some of them limping. I came to know that they had been beaten up with thick sticks in jail. Their hands had been tied with ropes. As a result, they have injuries below the waist and the legs. They were crying while talking to me,” the chief minister told journalists after meeting the fishermen. She asked the state government officials and the local legislators to arrange adequate medical care for the injured fishermen.

The relations between New Delhi and Dhaka remained strained over the past few months as the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh dismissed India’s concerns over atrocities on the Hindus and other minority communities in the neighbouring country.

Yunus took over as the head of an interim government in Dhaka on August 8 last year – three days after the Awami League government collapsed in the wake of a massive uprising following the police crackdown on protesters demanding the end of the reservation in recruitment for government jobs. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina flew to an Indian Air Force base near Delhi, just hours before a mob stormed into her official residence in Dhaka.

“Their (fishermen’s) condition would bring tears to your eyes. They are victims of circumstances. They mistakenly crossed the borders,” the West Bengal chief minister said on Monday.

Altogether 95 Indian fishermen, mostly from the Kakdwip and Namkhana areas of West Bengal, were detained by the Bangladesh Coast Guard after they, on board six fishing boats, mistakenly sailed across the maritime boundary between the two nations in October and November last year.

The coast guards of the two nations exchanged the incarcerated Indian and Bangladeshi fishermen, who were languishing in the jails in the two countries for violating the maritime boundary line in the pursuit of marine resources.

The two sides released and repatriated 95 Indian fishermen incarcerated in Bangladesh and 90 Bangladeshi fishermen lodged in the jails of India. The reciprocal release and repatriation were completed near the international maritime boundary line between India and Bangladesh on Sunday.

Mamata on Monday handed over cheques of Rs 10,000 to each of them as a token of assistance from the state government to start life afresh. The family of another fisherman, who died after jumping into the sea, to avoid arrest was also given a cheque of Rs 2 lakh.