TDS Desk:

Fifteen fishermen have reportedly been kidnapped by forest robbers from the Bay of Bengal in Dublar Char of the Sundarbans, their association and forest officials said on Wednesday.

The victims were identified as Shah Alam, Azharul Islam, Jahangir Alam, Arafat Hossain, Alamgir Hossain, Shahjahan Gazi Russel, Shahjahan Dhali, Hafizur Rahman, Shahinur Alam, Matier Sardar, Khan Rafique, Ripon Morol, Nure Alam and Nathan Biswas.

All of them hailed from Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat districts.

Kamal Uddin Ahmed, president of fishermen group, said a group of forest robbers kidnapped the 15 fishermen along with a trawler on Sunday while they were staying in Alorkol Char for processing dried fish in the Sundarbans.

A case has been filed with Sharankhola Police Station, said Md Shahidullah, officer-in-charge of the Police Station.

However, other fishermen in the vicinity managed to catch three robbers while they tried abduct more people. The attackers were handed them over to the coast guards.

Kazi Muhammad Nurul Karim, divisional forest officer of Bagerhat East Sundarbans zone, said the forest guards have been asked to take necessary steps to rescue the kidnapped fishermen and a joint initiative will be taken with the coordination of coast guard and law enforcers to conduct rescue operations.