– fishers in Berbice raided

Pirates, masked and armed with guns terrorized and robbed the captains and crew members of two fishing boats on Sunday evening, carting off almost $4 million in engines, fish, gasoline and other items.

Reports are that the pirates first robbed 45-year-old Jagjeet Balkarran of Shieldstown, West Bank Berbice (WBB) and crew around 6 pm while they were fishing about three miles off the Albion, Corentyne foreshore.

Sources told this newspaper that the pirates pulled up alongside the fishermen’s boat that was fitted with a Yamaha outboard engine and pointed a gun at them while ordering them to join the boat they came with.

They then took over the boat the fishermen were in and used it to escape, taking away the catch. They had removed the engine from the boat they dumped the men in.

The fishers were finally able to drift to shore and reported the matter to the police. The boat was recovered at the Rose Hall foreshore during a search yesterday minus the engine and other articles.

And in the other incident, two crew members whose names were given as Patrick and Kassim of Number Two Settlement, Blair-mont, WBB along with two other members were attacked by four masked gunmen while fishing close to the mouth of the Berbice River.

The captain of the boat was also severely beaten with a piece of wood.

The men were robbed of a Yamaha outboard engine, one gallon of gasoline, groceries, a battery and cellular phones. They too managed to drift to shore and reported the matter to the police.

These are the latest in a series of attacks on fishermen at sea.

During last week a fishing boat named, Prince Oman with crew members from the East Coast Demerara were attacked by pirates in Suriname waters.

The pirates shot two of the fishermen and took two of them hostage while escaping. The men who were missing turned up alive and well two days later.