Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG) arrested 12 suspected pirates from the Bay of Bengal early Tuesday.

The arrestees were identified as Md Salauddin (26), Md Anwar Hossain (23), Kamal Hossain (23), Md Imon (19), Md Abu Taher (32), Md Islam (27), Md Faisal (20), Md Raju ( 37), Siratul Mustakim (17), Piyas Mondal (23), Md Alamgir (30) and Md Arif (30).

Media officer of the BCG Headquarters Lt. Siam-ul-Haq on Tuesday afternoon said, the BCG Base Chattagram got a secret information that a group of pirates (dacoits) were staying in Chattagram outer anchorage area for committing dacoity in foreign ships. Based on the information received, a team of BCG Base Chattagram was stationed in the outer anchorage area in a few boats in disguise on early Tuesday at around 12:30 am.

When the BCG members saw the movement of an engine driven wooden boat about 2 miles north east of the Chattagram outer anchorage suspicious, they gave a signal to the suspected boat to stop. Sensing danger, the gangsters tried to escape quickly. But the boat was caught after a 1 hour chase in rough sea.

The BCG arrested the 12 suspected robbers and recovered some local weapons, including 11 ramdas, one saw, one shabol, one plier, one spanner and 12 mobiles from their possessions.

During preliminary interrogation, the arrestees revealed that following the directives under the command of Md. Akbar, the main leader of the dacoit group, and led by Md. Salauddin (26), the dacoit group went to Chattagram outer anchorage by boat from Ichanagar new bridge ghat under Karnaphuli police station in Chattagram around at around  21:30 pm on May 13. It is also known that the bandits have been conducting such activities for a long time, the media officer said.

Lt  Siam-ul-Haq further said that the arrested gang and seized goods were handed over to Patenga Model Police Station for further legal action.