Team Mangalorean - City Beat

Mangalore: A glass-fibre fishing boat named 'Al Falah', owned by Hassan Bengre, has sailed off for fishing on August 10, with four on board. Contact with them from the shore was lost the soon after. Since their mobiles also began responding with 'switched off' messages, there was concern and worry at the port over the possibility of their having gone missing.

Allauddin from Bengre, Mohammed Miaz, Rajendra and Raju from Thiruvananthapuram had left on Friday on a mission of deep-sea fishing. After some time, they called from their mobiles to report breakdown of one of the two engines. They also informed the owner that they were diverting to Malpe with the help of the second engine which was functioning.

However, they neither reported at Malpe nor returned to the port. Their mobiles also remained unresponsive, which caused concern since Friday night. On Sunday afternoon around 2, much to the relief and joy of the fishing community, the boat showed up at the southern wharf near the estuary here.

But because of the rough seas, they could not enter the port from the estuary. Hence they proceeded to the New Mangalore Port area in Panambur and sought permission to return ashore.

For security reasons, they had to wait at the NMPT for a few hours and they could reach the shore only around 7 pm. The owner of the boat said that the four men had proceeded towards Malpe but since the sea was rough there, they returned to Mangalore, where also the sea was rough at the estuary.

Panic developed because the batteries of their mobiles had run out of charge and the phones were not getting contacted.