Piracy at Ctg Port

Strangely, as the Prothom Alo put it, the watchmen bore no visible wound-marks and yet they died. The hospital sources said the two ill-fated young guards Shahidul Islam and Mofazzul Huq were brought dead, so that the former had to send the corpses for autopsy. The mystery needs to be solved.

Such a high incidence of piracy at the outer anchorage can only undermine the credibility of the port which has already been on the line for other reasons that need hardly any elaboration. Unrest, wildcat strikes, slowdown in operations, high demurrage etc had earned a bad name for the port. While we have come out of some of these problems, piracy is posing a threat to the competitiveness of the port. Already, the IMO has put us next to Indonesia in terms of incidence of piracy in our sea waters. The image can definitely be changed by energetic surveillance at sea. We must be able to provide whatever equipment and manpower are needed to beef up security in and around the port area, outer anchorage, continental shelf and our economic zone.

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