<i>The moments of joy</i>
HOME, SWEET HOME: Lavlu Rahman, released from seven months of woeful captivity under abductors in Afghanistan, embraces his father after reaching home at Ghosher Ghagarjan village in Tangail Sadar upazila yesterday afternoon. Photo: STAR
The family members, relatives and neighbours expressed their heartfelt joy and gratitude as three Bangladeshi workers, freed on Tuesday after seven months of their abduction in Afghanistan, returned to their houses in Tangail yesterday afternoon. Earlier Foreign Minister Dipu Moni received them at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital upon their arrival at 8:40am. Armed criminals abducted the three men -- Lavlu Rahman of Ghosher Ghagarjan village in Tangail Sadar upazila, and Aminul Islam and Shafiqul Islam of Baghutia village in Kalihati upazila under the district along with four other Bangladeshis and shot dead another near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif on December 17 last year. Two of the abductees later managed to escape while five others had to remain captive for over seven months. All the eight Bangladeshi men worked at South Korean road construction firm Samwhan Corporation. Release of the five Bangladeshi nationals, including the aforementioned three persons, and Mahbub Ali from Charghat of Rajshahi and Imam Uddin from Rangunia in Chittagong on Tuesday last followed a series of negotiation and diplomatic efforts for months. When Lavlu Rahman, a surveyor of the South Korean firm, reached his house in Tangail at around 4:00pm yesterday, his three minor sons Nibir, Tabir and Abir jumped to get on father's lap while Lavlu's elderly father Mohammad Jasimuddin, mother Aklima Khatun and wife Kona Rahman started shedding tears of joy. Jasimuddin said, “At one stage we had left hope of our son's return. Now I and my wife can die with peace." "Armed Afghan Mujahids attacked our camp before the Esha prayers on December 17. They shot dead crasher operator Kazi Altaf Hossain of Pabna district on the spot and tied hands of seven of us, all Bangladeshis," Lavlu said. “Later, they blindfolded us and made us walk to a nearby village from where two of our group Khayer and Mozibor managed to flee. Then the abductors took us to a remote village and kept us in a clay-made room in bitter cold for the next 52 days. They gave us bread and two glasses of water once a day. “We could not take bathe in last seven months. The armed men came to our room and often threatened to shoot us. They asked us why we worked with the kafers (Koreans). “Later they shifted us to other villages. On August 1, one of the armed men told us that they would free us the next day,” Lavlu said. Hearing the news of Lavlu's return, hundreds of villagers came to see him at his house. Aminul Islam, working as an excavator operator of the South Korean firm, and Shafiqul Islam, a surveyor of the same firm, also reached their houses at Baghutia village in Kalihati upazila yesterday afternoon. Aminul's wife Bilkis Akter said, "I with my minor daughter Sumi passed worrying time after hearing the news of Aminul's abduction. Now we can sleep with peace.” Shafiqul's wife Nasima Begum expressed gratitude to the governments Bangladesh and Afghanistan, employer Samwhan Corporation and the news media of Bangladesh for helping safe return of her husband.
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