The pirates mostly from Myanmar and Thailand have long been engaged in looting the marine fisheries of the Bay of Bengal, as the authorities concerned are indifferent to the problem.

Their activities are alarmingly increasing in the absence of a strict law to protect the marine resources of Bangladesh, including checking smuggling and piracy and controlling the water territory, sources said.

A task force, formed to deter piracy in 1999, is yet to start its task.

According to traders dealing with the business, the pirates loot marine fisheries from the Bay of Bengal worth no less than Tk 80 to 100 crore a year.

"For lack of security and authority's sluggishness, more than 200 trawler owners have lost all their belongings at the hands of pirates," said Jahangir Alam, a trawler owner.

About 3,000-sq.kms of Bangladesh's water territory in the Bay of Bengal and along the coastal belt remains unprotected, giving an added advantage to the pirates to rule the roost at their will, sources said.

Exploiting the laxity, the alien pirates on board modern trawlers used to enter the Bangladesh territory and loot marine fisheries without any resistance.

Bangladesh's water territory is an excellent ground for marine fisheries especially 15 types of prawn and the pirates plunder about 30 per cent of this resource, frozen food sources said.

The government in 1974 earmarked the country's water territory stretching 200 miles out to the deep sea, but mentioned nothing regarding a 'conservation zone' and 'continental shelf.'

None of the successive governments could control and protect the country's water territory properly, fisheries sources said.

The pirates sometimes even kidnap the Bangladeshi fishermen at gunpoint and held them hostage, they said.

The government, at an inter-ministerial meeting in 1999, formed a 10-member taskforce headed by the port chairman to restrain the pirates and prevent smuggling in the sea. But the task force is yet to start its function.

Traders said that a strong and effective regulatory body and modern patrolling system in the water territory were needed to protect the marine resources from extinction at the hands of a few criminals.