Fifteen more fishermen, who suffered at the hands of pirates between Friday and Saturday on the Pomeroon coast, were rescued by police and the Coast Guard on Saturday night, according to the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre.
Works Minister Robeson Benn told GINA “Follow ups were made of the reconnaissance work that was flown yesterday…the police were given the coordinates…the police team (went) towards an area west of the mouth of the Pomeroon River (and) rescued 15 men”.
Benn said that the Joint Services have been called in and an intensive search is being undertaken.
“We intend to continue our supportive efforts and searches… we will be meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and fisheries officers…the police, coast guard and other parties will continue to work…over the next two to three days, members of the Maritime Administration and the Coast Guard will conduct their investigations, visiting strategic locations and making the necessary statements,” Minister Benn said, according to GINA.
Earlier yesterday, Benn spoke to Stabroek News about three men who had been rescued. He said that two of the three men were brought into shore by the lawmen while the third remained on the river to assist in bringing the fishing vessel to shore.
Stabroek News understands that the men were taken into Charity at around 11pm on Saturday and later visited the Charity Hospital for medical treatment.
Owner of one of the vessels which was attacked on Friday morning, Nalini Dindyal told Stabroek News last night that the captain and crew were savagely beaten on Friday morning.
She said that the captain of the vessel Parsram Dyal called ‘Black boy’ and his four-member crew were fishing in the Better Success area when they were set upon. She said the captain related that the crew awoke around 6 am on Friday and while preparing to attend to the seine, another boat pulled up.
The occupants of the other boat then instructed the crew of her vessel to lie down and hold their heads in a section of the boat. She said the vessel was one of the larger boats and it was on its second trip at sea while the new engine was on its first voyage.
Dindyal said that the men then beat her employees and later commandeered the vessel. The worried woman noted that the pirates used her vessel to ram several smaller boats which were in the vicinity at the time. The boat was later taken away by the pirates.
The captain of the ‘Toney Two’ Mahendra Deotadin related that he and his 5-member crew were also attacked on Friday sometime around 11 am, soon after having lunch. The Golden Fleece man, who was nursing cuts and bruises about the body, stated that the pirates approached and demanded their valuables and he noted that the men took away the catch, worth $400,000, seines as well as the fish glue.
The pirates also beat the man and his crew badly before leaving them in their vessel minus the engine. Another boat captain Sasenarine Ramlogan stated that he and his four-member crew were also beaten by the pirates.
Meantime, a man who was found along the coast in the Pomeroon area late yesterday afternoon was under police guard at the Charity Hospital. The man was seen swimming towards the foreshore in the area and was rescued by persons there. He related that he and two other persons were transporting an engine to rescue several fishermen in distress on Saturday morning when heavy winds upturned the vessel.
However, the man’s story was inconsistent, and he was subsequently taken to the hospital for treatment while the Coastguard followed up on the man’s story and launched a search for his colleagues.
“Boats are sunk or swamped, engines destroyed and fuel, fish and fishing equipment were stolen,” Benn told this newspaper earlier in the day.
He said that a joint services exercise is ongoing as they seek to arrest the persons involved in the attack on the 15 fishing boats.
Some of the men were locked in a small cabin of a boat for hours and they were then taken to the deck of the boat and brutalized by the pirates. The men were later rescued by a passenger boat and transported to Charity.
A release from the Government Information Agency on Saturday had said that the pirates targeted approximately 15 fishing boats in a spate of attacks which started around 08:00 hours on Friday and ended around the same time yesterday.
“The Maritime Administration and Coastguard received reports this morning of acts of piracy off the coast of the Pomeroon River going up to an area called Kamwatta Beach. The reports indicated that up to 15 boats with fisher folk were intercepted by persons who beat them, tied them up and imprisoned them in their boats,” Benn had told a press conference on Saturday.
Yesterday Ghandharna Dashu, called `Key Key’, the captain of one of the vessels, Little, attacked by the pirates, told Stabroek News that the pirates were Guyanese.
“They talking just like you and me, dem didn’t sound strange but all a dem had on masks,” the man said.
On Saturday Dashu had said that it was the second attack he has suffered. He said that when the boat transporting the pirates slammed into his, the vessel was so badly damaged that it eventually sank.
He said the men destroyed his engine before throwing it overboard but took the other valuables including his catch.
The man recalled that while they were in the cabin one of the bandits took a bowl of water for them. “We had a cup so everybody had to tek lil bit, lil bit”. According to him more fishermen were being held captive on the deck of the vessel.
He estimated his losses to be about $1.7 million saying that he now has to get a new boat. Asked if he is going to be returning to sea, the man said that he had no choice since “dat is meh only income and meh got three pickney fuh mine”.
The Better Success resident said he was still feeling the effects of the beating he endured. He was treated at the hospital and later sent home.
In recent years piracy has taken a heavy toll on fishermen particularly on the Corentyne.
