Published: 31 January 2026
The report of over four hundred citizens being abducted by a foreign insurgent group while fishing within the country’s sovereign territorial waters is not only alarming but an utter affront to national security. It is staggering that the state has maintained a prolonged silence regarding the allegations that at least 420 fishermen from Teknaf and St. Martin’s have been held captive by the Myanmar-based armed group, Arakan Army (AA), for the past five months. Regrettably, there has been no effective initiative to rescue them, nor has anyone stood by the helpless, victimized families.
The anguish shared by several affected families during an event last Thursday titled “The Island Women: A Feminist Environmentalist Vision for St. Martin’s Island” has confronted us with a harsh reality. The program, organized by the Centre for Critical Discourse (CCD) at the Professor Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium of Dhaka University, highlighted a grim truth: these families do not even know if their loved ones are alive or dead. The uncertainty of loss now outweighs the burdens of extreme poverty and high-interest loans (Dadon). In one tragic instance, both sons of a single family were abducted and remain missing. Madina Begum, who raised her two sons with immense struggle after losing her husband at a young age, pleaded with the government to arrange for her to see them one last time before her death. Such desperate cries from victimized families cannot be ignored under any circumstances.
The question remains: if citizens are subjected to such harassment by a foreign paramilitary force while seeking a livelihood within their own borders, who then is responsible for protecting those waters? It is distressing to note that while border killings or abductions by the BSF trigger significant political and social protests in our country, there is a conspicuous lack of outcry regarding the abduction of hundreds of fishermen by the Arakan Army. Why is this insecurity at sea being treated as a “shadow war” or a mere isolated incident? When an armed group can enter the waters of a sovereign nation at will to abduct its citizens, and the state fails to provide a visible solution over five months, it is only natural for the public to question the state’s functional capacity.
Experts argue that despite the “maritime victory” in defining sea borders, the safety of our fishermen has not been ensured. For the residents of St. Martin’s, tourism lasts only two months; fishing is their year-round sustenance. If this primary profession is threatened by foreign forces and the state fails to provide security, the people of that region may gradually feel alienated from the state.
We believe that the nature of the government’s political or strategic equations with the Arakan Army is not the concern of the general public. The primary and foremost responsibility of the state is to ensure the protection of its citizens. The government must immediately engage in high-level diplomatic negotiations with the relevant parties in Myanmar to return the 420 abducted fishermen unharmed. Simultaneously, patrols by the Coast Guard and Navy must be intensified to ensure a fearless working environment for Bangladeshi fishermen in the seas adjacent to St. Martin’s and Teknaf. No geopolitical equation can be deemed successful if it fails to secure the lives of its citizens.
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