The coastal belt around Bay of Bengal could very well be on the cusp of breaking free from the curse of piracy, thanks to the government’s outlaw rehabilitation activities.

“The Rapid Action Battalion, Coast Guard, Border Guard Bangladesh, Ansar, and Police are sincerely working together to free the Bay and coastal belts of Bangladesh from pirates and robbers,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Thursday when accepting the surrender plea of 50 robbers of the Bay.

The surrender took place at the RAB-7 headquarters in the port city. Similar RAB-organised surrender events in 2018 and 2020, saw 77 former pirates receiving the offer to start normal lives.

“We will get rid of militants, robbers, pirates, and terrorists soon,” the home minister said Thursday while expressing high hopes of the mission’s success.

The surrendered pirates were from the coastal areas of Chattogram and Cox's Bazar districts and they gave up their arms and ammunition before the Home Minister Asaduzzaman.

Terming RAB “a symbol of trust and faith”, he said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina assigned RAB as a task force in 2012 with a view to protecting the lives of marginalised people in the Sundarbans.

Financial assistance is being provided to the surrendered bandits, so that they cannot return to their previous profession.