Armed, masked pirates attacked and robbed a few fishing boats close to the Suriname waters between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning and escaped with large quantities of fish, fish glue and other articles.
The pirates beat some of the workers with hammers, tied their heads in “salt bags” and destroyed their engines, leaving them to drift for several hours. Other boats that they tried to rob managed to escape into Suriname.
Reports are that the pirates first launched an attack on a boat belonging to ‘Tall Boy,’ a member of the Number 66 Fisheries, around 3 pm on Saturday.
After robbing him of the articles, the pirates disabled the engine and his crew drifted to the Suriname coast.
Newly re-elected member of the fisheries, Pravinchandra Deodat told Stabroek News that the crew is still stranded in Suriname and that arrangements are being made to “get them back to Guyana.”
The pirates then robbed a boat belonging to ‘Tony’ from the East Coast Demerara of 700 trout and a large quantity of other fish. They carried the men in their boat until they caught up with one belonging to Ramdhanie called ‘Buck Boy.’ They beat his workers and after robbing his [Ramdhanie’s] boat and disabling his engine, they dumped Tony’s workers into it and escaped.
They also beat Tony’s workers severely, covered their heads with the bags and tied their hands with rope from his seine.
A boat belonging to P. Jainarine ‘Max’ was also robbed around 9 am on Sunday of a quantity of fish and fish glue and his engine destroyed. His crew was also left drifting until they reached close to the shores at Number 66 Village and were pulled to safety by another boat.
Deodat told this newspaper he would “continue to fight against piracy without fear or favour” and he is appealing to persons with information to come forward.
He lamented that “based on certain information there are some low life fishermen who are involved in piracy and robbing the decent fishermen who work day to day to support their families.”
He is pleased that Commander of ‘B’ Division, Dereck Josiah is co-operating with the fisheries, noting that “as soon as he got the report he sent his ranks to investigate…”
