Five Bangladeshi workers who were kidnapped near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan in December were rescued on Tuesday, foreign ministry sources said.The workers were released after an intense negotiation between the kidnappers and the elderly citizens of Afghanistan under the local government initiative.
| Perhaps the writer meant "the Elders"? The age distribution of the Afghan population skews quite young, after all. |
They are excavator operators of the company Md Aminul Islam and Mahbub Ali, grader operator Md Imam Uddin, and surveyors Lovlu Rahman and Shafiqul Alam.
Aminul, Lovlu and Shafiqul hailed from Tangail, Mahbub from Rajshahi and Md Imam Uddin from Chittagong.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni at a press briefing told the newsmen that she had no knowledge whether any ransom were given to the kidnappers in releasing the workers.
The government had taken up all necessary efforts including the diplomatic one to bring back the rescue workers to their homeland.
| "We've got all the necessary efforts." "What about the diplomatic one?" "Eh, bring it along. There's room in the bag and it might work for once." |
Dipu Moni said it will take seven to eight days to bring the workers back to Bangladesh.
A gang of Afghan criminals attacked a camp of Samwhan Corporation near Mazar-i-Sharif on December 17 last year, killing Kazi Altaf Hossain, a diploma engineer of Pabna, who had been working as an asphalt plant operator at the company.
Nine construction workers managed to escape the attack while seven were taken hostage by the myrmidons. The abductors freed two of the seven the next day.
The incident took place on a remote road being constructed between the northern provinces of Samangan and Balkh.