29 Bangladeshi hostages return after 3 months

Twenty nine Bangladeshis, who kept hostage by a gang of compatriots in Iran for three months since September, returned home this morning with the help of Bangladesh embassy in Tehran.

All of the captives used to live in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, whom the kidnappers held captive luring them of giving jobs in Greece and Turkey.

A flight of Emirates Airline carrying the 29 Bangladeshis landed at the Shahjalal International Airport around 10:20am, Borhanuddin, an official of Crime Investigation Department (CID), told The Daily Star.

The CID officials were interrogating the group at the airport around 2:00pm when the report was filed.

In September, a gang of Bangladeshi kidnappers held hostage 30 people and kept them at a house on Iran border from where they managed to flee nearly a month ago and took help from the Bangladesh embassy in Tehran for returning home.

Meanwhile, one of the abductees -- Jewel Mollah of Shariatpur -- was murdered when they were kept hostage at the house, CID official Borhanuddin said.

Borhanuddin said the kidnappers realised a ransom of Tk 95 lakhs from relatives of the captives in the last three months.

Shajahan Mollah, father of Jewel who died during the confinement, went to the airport this morning and claimed that Md Rafique, one of the 29 returnees, is the main accused.

The CID officials filed a case with the Airport Police Station accusing six out of the groups including Rafique and took them to CID office for interrogation.

But detail about the killing could not be known immediately.