Sev­er­al fish­ing boats have been dam­aged or de­stroyed by fire at Car­li Bay, Cou­va, as fish­er­men con­tin­ue to face at­tacks by van­dals and thieves.

Car­li Bay Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Imi­ti­az Khan said there have been two at­tacks this week and po­lice are yet to make ar­rests.

Among the ves­sels was the “Pa­panas” owned by the Agard fam­i­ly. This boat was burnt com­plete­ly.

An­oth­er, “Hal­lelu­jah III,” owned by Nicholas Ram­jass, was par­tial­ly burnt and an­oth­er boat named “Hal­lelu­jah” was de­stroyed.

“Fish­er­men are scared to go out. We have about 22 seine boats. The fish­er­men can­not take care of their fam­i­lies be­cause they are be­ing threat­ened and now their boats are be­ing dam­aged. We need some help in terms of boost­ing se­cu­ri­ty at these land­ing sites,” Khan said yes­ter­day.

He ex­plained that strange ve­hi­cles go in­to the land­ing site and with poor light­ing and no cam­eras or po­lice pa­trols, fish­er­men were ter­ri­fied. 

“This is not the first time we are hav­ing prob­lems at this land­ing site. We want im­proved light­ing,” Khan said.

He ex­plained that in 2018, Car­li Bay fish­er­men be­came vic­tims of pira­cy and were barred from fish­ing on the North Coast.

“Peo­ple were told to sell their boats and work taxi. They did not want fish­er­men fish­ing in the North Coast. Now it is 2021 and they are com­ing to our land­ing site and burn­ing down our boats,” Khan said.

MP for the area Ravi Rati­ram called on Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds to do some­thing to as­sist the fish­er­men.

“I have made con­tact with the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent, Kurt Si­mon. Coun­cil­lor Al­lan “Taxi” Seep­er­sad met with the pres­i­dent of the Car­li Bay Fish­ing As­so­ci­a­tion,” Rati­ram said, adding sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions had been made in the past to im­prove se­cu­ri­ty at Car­li Bay.

Ef­forts to con­tact Hinds for com­ment were un­suc­cess­ful yes­ter­day.—Rad­hi­ca De Sil­va