[Bangla Daily Star] Four pirates were killed in a "shootout" with Rapid Action Battalion in the Sundarbans under Sharankhola upazila of Bagerhat yesterday.
"Argghh! we be-"
BANG BANG BANGETY BANG!!
"Good shooting by the men, Sergeant. Your range time is paying off." |
The dear departed, aged between 30 and 40, were members of Raju Bahini,
| Said to be the biggest pirate gang of the Sundarbans... |
a gang of local pirates, said Major Sabbir Osmani of Rab-8. Three of the four pirates were identified as Rawshan, Nati Kamrul and Belayet.
| The fourth, poor man, was so impoverished he hadn't even so much as a Md., which is short for Muhammed, to his name. |
A team of Rab-8 on three trawlers were patrolling the area around 11:00am
| River patrol is clearly a very different exercise than encountering land-based miscreants. |
when they noticed suspicious movements of another trawler on the Bhoirav river near Dhanichabari of the upazila, said Lt Col Monirul Haque, commanding officer of Rab-8, who led the operation.
The Rab team challenged the trawler. Within sometime, passengers from that trawler fired on the law enforcers, prompting them to fire back. At one stage of the firing, the pirates entered a canal of the Sundarbans forest, anchored their trawler and decamped.
| A wise, if futile move. You can run from the Rab... |
Later, the Rab members recovered four bullet-ridden bodies from deep into the forest.
| ...but you'll only die tired. A lesson learnt, though only briefly retained. |
Six Indian-made and five Myanmar-made guns, one pistol, 24 bullets, eight cartridges, six sharp weapons and Tk 1 lakh cash were also recovered from the trawler of the pirates, Rab sources said.
| Is there much trade in guns from Myanmar? I don't recall it being mentioned previously... |
Local fishermen identified the dead as members of notorious pirate gang Raju Bahini which regularly collects toll from fishermen in the coastal areas. |