Police in Cox’s Bazar arrested two people in connection with the killing of 10 people in the Bay of Bengal.
The arrest came after a case was filed with the Cox’s Bazar police station on Tuesday by Rokeya Begum, wife of fishing boat owner Shamsul Alam, who was among the victims.
Md Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of the police station, confirmed the arrest of Kamal Hossain alias Bittya Kamal and Abdul Karim Sikder of Matarbari under Maheskhali upazila.
The duo is among the four accused mentioned in the case. Another 50 to 60 unknown people were also accused in the case.
Kamal’s brother, Anwar Hossain, and Babul Majhi are the other two named accused in the case.
Cox’s Bazar police superintendent Mahfuzul Islam told reporters at a press briefing that the two arrested suspects had confessed to their involvement in the killing.
Meanwhile, the bodies of six victims were handed over to their families on Monday, while the remaining four bodies were kept in the mortuary of a hospital as their identities could not be ascertained.
Mahfuzul Islam told New Age that police had collected DNA samples from people who introduced themselves as family members of victims.
Ten decomposed bodies were recovered on Sunday afternoon from a fishing trawler that was believed to have been attacked and sunken in the Bay of Bengal by a suspected gang two weeks ago.
Police suspected that the capsized trawler got stuck with another trawler, and fishermen salvaged it and dragged it to Cox’s Bazar shore on Sunday.
Police said that they found two victims tied up, two wrapped in fishing nets, and one beheaded. Fingers if two victims were cut off.
The victims are from different villages in Maheskhali and Chakaria upazilas of the district, police said.
Rokeya, in her case statement, said her husband left for the sea with their fishing boat on April 7 and was in contact with her until the next day.
She said that the four named accused used to give her husband threats at different times. She said that the accused looted fish from her husband’s boat and killed all the fishermen in the boat before putting the bodies in the ice box of the boat.
The police were yet to confirm the motive behind the killings.
