29 October 2004	Friday	14 Ramazan 1425

DHAKA, Oct 28: Bodies of 14 fishermen, killed by pirates who locked them inside the cold-storage compartment of a fishing boat in the Bay of Bengal, were recovered on Thursday.

The bodies were recovered when the boat, FB Kausar, was found anchored at the estuary of the river Bakkhali at Nazirtek in Cox's Bazar, a coastal district of the country.

Reports reaching Dhaka said that the boat, owned by a former union council chairman of Rajakhali under Pekua upazila of the district, sailed for the deep seas from Rajakhali on October 18 with 15 fishermen on board.

The lone survivor, Nurul Huq, had reportedly told the police that the fishermen Were sailing home after 10 days at sea when they were attacked by about a dozen pirates at about 8pm on Wednesday.

"The gang killed 14 of the crew and hid their bodies in an ice chamber in the trawler, before fleeing with fish and fishing equipment," Nurul had stated to the police, and said that he had survived by hiding in the engine room of the boat. Nurul drove the boat ashore on Thursday. He said the pirates had taken away all the fish netted from the sea.

But the whereabouts of Nurul has remained untraced since his statement to the police, officer-in-charge of the Cox's Bazar police station Fakhrul Islam said on Thursday.

The OC told newsmen that he came to know about the boat suspiciously anchored for long at the Bakkhali estuary in between Nazirartek and Sonadia. Immediately, the police went to the spot and found the lid of the ice-chamber closed with nails. On opening the ice-chamber, the police found the bodies, he said.