A fishing trawler with 16 fishermen on board has gone missing in the Bay of Bengal.
Sunderbans Development Minister Manturam Pakhira told reporters today that two trawlers which had started from Namkhana in South 24-Parganas district this morning in search of the vessel, 'Baba Loknath', failed to locate it.
According to the minister, the trawler, which had set out for the sea on July 10, yesterday sent a message to the fishermen's association in Namkhana that the trawler's motor had jammed after the blade got entangled with the fishing net. The location was 100 miles off Namkhana.
Pakhira said that the search for the missing trawler was hampered by large waves in the sea and strong wind and did not rule out the possibility of the vessel drifting towards Bangladesh.
All 16 fishermen belonged to Akshaynagar in Kakdwip in the Sunderbans.
