Ending their captivity for nearly eight months in Afghanistan, five Bangladeshi workers returned home yesterday.
Kidnapped on December 17 last year at gunpoint from a remote camp near Mazar-i-Sharif, they were freed on August 2 following long-drawn negotiations and diplomatic efforts.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni received the workers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 8:40am.
She thanked the Afghan government and the Korean company for their cooperation in brining back the Bangladeshi workers home safely. She assured the workers of all of all-out support.
The returnees told reporters that their captors, who they believe to be Taliban or Mujahideen militants, did not give them any food except some bread thrice a day. They were given a little water that often had insects in it. The abductors, however, did not torture them physically.
The five are Aminul Islam, Shafiul Alam Khokan and Abdur Rahman Lablu of Kalihati in Tangail, Mahbub Ali of Charghat in Rajshahi and Imam Uddin of Rangunia in Chittagong. They were employed as construction workers at Samwhan Corporation, a Korean company, in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.
As they walked out of the airport terminal, family members outside the gate broke into tears. In an emotional reunion, they, too, could not hold back their tears.
"I had lost all my hopes to see you again," Aminul Islam wailed as he embraced his elder brother.
Talking to the media, Imam Uddin said, "We could not take a bath for more than seven months. We were allowed to bathe just three days before our release."
"They did not give us enough water to wash our hands and face," added Imam, who went to Afghanistan in 2005.
The five were kept alternatively in two rooms and a cave of a hill with their legs enchained at night.
"We repeatedly told them that we were innocent. But they did not listen. They rather blamed us for working in the Korean company," said Shafiul, who also went in 2005 to seek his luck there.
The abductors picked up them as they were constructing roads which, according to the kidnapers, created problems for them to set mines to destroy vehicles of the US troops.
"The day before we were freed, they made us promise that we will return to Bangladesh straightway and will never go back to Afghanistan to work in a company brought by the USA-backed government," said Mahbub Ali, another returnee.
THE ABDUCTION AND RELEASE
At around 7:50pm on December 17 last year, the workers suddenly heard gun shots when they were in the camp. Within five minutes, around 20 men entered the camp by defeating the policeman deployed there. They captured the workers, blindfolded them and tied their hands.
They were forced to walk for nearly five kilometres. Then their blindfolds were taken off and hands were untied. They then walked for the whole night to reach a house the next morning.
After a few hours, the workers were again blindfolded and taken to another place after a three to four hours' journey on a vehicle.
They had no idea if they would ever be released.
On August 2, the kidnappers tied their eyes and put them on a vehicle. After around a 40-minute drive, the abductors asked them to walk down a road, saying they would find their company officials ahead.
After walking for a few hours, they found a local who helped them talk with the company officials over the phone. A number of company officials then came in a car to pick them up.
Source : The Daily Star
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