Pi­rates re­port­ed­ly at­tempt­ed to at­tack fish­er­men from Or­ange Val­ley and Car­li Bay on Thurs­day night.

Im­ti­az Khan, pres­i­dent of the Car­li Bay Fish­er­men As­so­ci­a­tion said vil­lagers were at the wake of Sha­fi­na Khan, the moth­er of Ja­son Bap­tiste, one of the fish­er­men who was killed on Ju­ly 22, when they were alert­ed that six men on a boat at­tempt­ed to rob the fish­er­men who had to cut their nets and flee.

Khan said the fish­er­men showed up at the wake shak­en and wor­ried.

A re­port was made to the Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion and the Coast Guard alert­ed. The fish­er­men al­so went back in­to the sea to warn oth­er fish­er­men op­er­at­ing some 20 boats.

Khan said the Coast Guard was on pa­trol in South and took some time to get in­to the area. Khan said the fish­er­men are fed-up of ask­ing the gov­ern­ment for as­sis­tance.

He said sev­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions were sent to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty and the Prime Min­is­ter yet noth­ing is hap­pen­ing. He said the re-in­sti­tu­tion of the Po­lice Ma­rine Branch has been stalled de­spite promis­es to get the unit rolling by Oc­to­ber.

Khan added the gov­ern­ment was con­cen­trat­ing its en­er­gies on is­sues that are less than im­por­tant to the mem­bers of the pub­lic. “They have time to re­spond to a UNC meet­ing. They have time to re­spond at Cam­bridge An­a­lyt­i­ca. To us, there is no re­sponse.”

Khan be­lieves the at­tempt­ed at­tack could al­so be a ploy by hu­man traf­fick­ers to dis­tract the Coast Guard so per­sons en­ter­ing T&T from Venezuela could be smug­gled in­to the coun­try.