The drive eventually proved to be a huge one in its history as the mobile court jailed 10 wholesale fish traders and destroyed 172 maunds or six and a half tonnes (a maund=37.5kg approx) formalin-treated fishes and seized five maunds jatka (small Hilsha) from the wholesale fish markets at Sawarighat, Kaptan Bazar and Waizghat in the city.

The court comprising a large group of the joint forces seized and destroyed 164 maunds Ruhi fish, five maunds Cheoa fish and about a maund shrimp for presence of toxic formalin in them.

After an instant trial it awarded five traders 11 months' imprisonment and fined them Tk 50,000 each under the Fish Protection and Conservation Act.

The court also sold five maunds jatka seized from Kaptan Bazar and Waizghat fish markets for Tk 19,800 at auction. It sentenced five traders to 11 months' imprisonment and fined them Tk 5,000 each.

The joint forces arrested all the ten fish traders and the mobile court sent them to jail.

Officials from the Department of Fisheries were also present during the drive.

Sawarighat is one of the biggest wholesale fish markets on the bank of the Buriganga where fishes come from different parts of the country as well as Myanmar.

More than 800 wholesalers and stockists operate in the market for only a few hours early in the morning. Traders from the city and adjacent areas collect fish from the Sawarighat market to sell them at different markets.

The joint forces raided the Sawarighat wholesale fish market at 4:00am following information from plain-clothes members that sufficient fish had reached the market.

They requested all buyers to leave the market and collected samples of fish from the wholesalers for testing.

The test with modern equipment recently given by the Department of Environment instantly found most of the samples positive with formalin.

The joint forces then seized all the fishes from the traders.

Officials of the environment department said formalin is very harmful not only for the consumers but also for the people using it and businessmen handling it.

"Formalin causes various gastro-intestinal diseases, including cancer and kidney ailments, if it is consumed for a long period of time," said Mostafizur Rahman Akanda, senior chemist of the Department of Environment.

Magistrate Rokon Ud-Doula said they will continue the drive against formalin-treated fish in the city markets.

"Fish imported from Myanmar is mostly preserved with formalin and we will catch importers of such fish too," he said.

The Conservancy Department of Dhaka City Corporation disposed the seized formalin-treated fish at Matuail dumping ground.

Later, the mobile court raided the nearby Waizghat and Kaptan Bazar markets and seized five maunds jatka and arrested five traders.

Businessmen at the fish markets said they would not be able to sell the fish as customers either left the markets or did not go there hearing the news of the drive. They said they would have to count a huge loss.