The River Police has attached topmost priority to ensuring safety and security on the river routes alongside protecting the fisheries resources across the country.
"We have given the highest efforts to maintain security on the waterways despite having an acute shortage of manpower and vessels," Md Azharul Islam, Inspector Training, Legal and Media at the River Police Headquarters said on Friday.
He informed the River Police has 11 zones across the country, adding that they are mainly concentrating on Narayanganj, Chandpur, Barishal, Faridpur and Rajshahi zones.
"The River Police have increased security drives across the country mainly to ensure safety on the waterways," he added. To ensure security on the waterways, the River Police have intensified patrol on the waterways, he also added.
The spokesperson of the River Police said they are also working to protect the fisheries resources alongside ensuring safety on the waterways.
During the security drives, the River Police have so far arrested 621 individuals in the last two weeks, he said. A total of 148 cases were filed against the arrestees, he said.
He mentioned the arrests were made for fishing various Renu Pona (fish fry), using illegal nets for fishing, extortion, recklessness and murder.
During the 14 days of operations a huge quantity of illegal fishing nets, fish, and various Renu Ponna including Bagda (Prawn), jellied shrimps and bushes were seized.
The seized illegal nets have already been destroyed and the fish were distributed to the orphanage and the fish fry have been released into the water, he added.
The River Police also filed cases against over 150 bulkheads for having no legal documents and seized several dredgers in the operation.
They also detained several dredgers on charges of illegal extraction of sand. During the operations, the River Police also recovered 18 human bodies. Unnatural death cases were registered in connection with recovering the bodies.
