Bharat Kalicharran faces life after two vicious piracy attacks
HAVING suffered his second piracy attack on the high seas, Bharat Kallicharran, 32, of Paradise Village, Essequibo Coast, said this second one was an ordeal he would never like to go through again in his life. He was one of a large group of fishermen who endured a severe beating from a team of pirates last weekend in the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of the Pomeroon River.
Kallicharran said he was attacked by pirates a day after he went out to sea to fish with a crew of three. The pirates used their larger boat to ram his boat before they boarded it. He had about $70,000 in fish and fish glue, all of which the pirates took, along with his seines and a new 15HP Yamaha engine. They ordered him to load the stuff into their boat; then they locked him and his three-man crew away with others in a very small cabin.
The fisherman stated that the pirates had no mercy on them, repeatedly beating them with cutlasses, and they could not even look at the men because they were told that if they looked they would be killed.
Kallicharran explained that fishing is his only means of earning a living for himself and family, because he began fishing with his father since he was 10 years old, and most of his family members are fishermen.
He said, “Up to now I am in pain. I was beaten all about the body, but I had on two jerseys, and I still felt the impact of the lashes. And some of the other men were not wearing any shirt, and that is why their got lacerations and cuts.”
The fisherman told the Guyana Chronicle that he is unsure of the future for his family, since he has three children and a wife to take care of, and his boat is badly damaged. He is now without an engine and seine, so he cannot return to the Atlantic Ocean to fish.
On December 19, 2010, he was also attacked and robbed by pirates in the Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity of Shell Beach. That time, three men in a boat carved out from a tree trunk came up to his, and after making off with his catch, seine and engine, they set his boat alight, and he had to jump into the water to save himself.
Kallicharran told the Guyana Chronicle that he is trying to acquire a new outboard engine at Courts Department Store, but since he is still in arrears for the one that was taken away by the pirates in this last piracy attack he is having some difficulties.
So far, he said, the unfortunate fishermen have been promised assistance, but none has been forthcoming; whereas, when rice farmers face hardships with their crops, they get attention and quick help. But it seems like fishermen do not have a voice.
Kallicharran stated that the sufferings of fishermen are endless. In the meantime he will have to seek employment of some kind to support his family, since his children are all of school age.
Pirates targeted about 15 fishing boats off the coast of the Pomeroon River, in a spate of attacks which started around 08:00 hrs on Friday and ended around the same time Saturday last weekend.
The fishermen, numbering 19, are all alive, having been rescued and hospitalised. They recounted tales of a harrowing ordeal at the hands of the pirates, who beat them with cutlasses and locked them in a small cabin for more than 22 hours without food and water.