India

Indian Coast Guard Rescues 20 Bangladeshi Fishermen & hands over to their Bangladesh counterpart

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October 26, 2022
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Delhi,

  Indian Coast Guard (ICG) rescued 20 Bangladeshi fishermen from the sea off Sagar Island near Indo-Bangladesh International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) on 25 Oct 22. In a swift coordinated Search and Rescue (SAR) operation, ICG saved their lives after the Coast Guard Dornier aircraft on surveillance sortie of the post landfall of cyclone “SITRANG” sighted their capsized boats and alerted the SAR team. They were rescued quickly and handed over to Bangladesh Coast Guard.     

          ICG had launched its Dornier aircraft post landfall of cyclone “SITRANG to sanitize the area close to the coast off Odisha and West Bengal and to render assistance to the mariners affected by the cyclone. During the surveillance sortie, ICG Dornier aircraft sighted approx 20 persons in water about 90 NM form IMBL as their boats had capsized in the cyclone. The survivors were clinging onto the floats and debris from sunken fishing boat. ICG dropped life raft in the vicinity and remained in area till survivors embarked the life raft.

          Then the ICG aircraft diverted merchant vessel “Nanta Bhum”, which was in vicinity during its passage from Port Klang in Malaysia to Kolkata, directing it to pick up the 20 persons from the life raft dropped by it.

          Coast Guard ships Vijaya, Varad  and C-426 were diverted to augment SAR efforts and sanitize the area. The 20 Bangladeshi fishermen were subsequently taken over by ICG Ship  Vijaya. The fishermen were checked by medical officer onboard ICG ship for their fitness before being handed over to Bangladesh Coast Guard, in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Indian Coast Guard and Bangladesh Coast Guard.

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