Four boats returned to port Wednesday after failing to find 16 Bangladeshi fishermen who were thrown into the sea by pirates after their vessel was attacked last week, the boats' owner said."My people could not trace any bodies. ... I am just helpless," Salamat Ullah said.
Two other men on the fishing boat who were also thrown into the ocean were soon rescued by another boat. They said 25-30 pirates assaulted their boat in the Bay of Bengal last Friday, slashing some of the fishermen with knives before throwing all of them into the sea.
"The pirates took the boat, fish and nets away from us," said fisherman Shahidullah, who like many Bangladeshis uses only one name.
Police have asked all police stations across the vast coastal region to stay alert for the missing men and boat, local police Chief Mohammad Sakhawat Hossain said Wednesday.
Families of the missing fishermen fear that all have drowned.
"I don't believe I will get good news, but we still are waiting for him," Abdul Kader said of his father, Abu Taher, the leader of the fishing crew.
The survivors said the pirates beat Taher severely and tied his hands before throwing him into the sea.
Ullah, the boat owner, told The Associated Press at a fishing village in Cox's Bazar, 185 miles (295 kilometers) south of Dhaka, that he sent four other boats to scour the sea after the attack, but they abandoned their search and returned Wednesday.
Pirates often attack fishermen in the Bay of Bengal and authorities say they are not well equipped to protect them.
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