Brac official Noor Islam, left, with his wife and son after his return home from Afghanistan. Unknown Afghan militants abducted him on September 15.Photo: STAR

The night of December 7, 2007 turned out to be the most memorable night of all in the lives of Noor Islam and his wife Anwara Parveen.
"I couldn't trust my own ears. I doubted if I was hearing right and didn't know whether to cry or laugh. The news of his release that night brought a sense of joy that I had never felt before," said Anwara Parveen, who had given up on her own life since her husband's abduction in Afghanistan on September 15 by unidentified armed militants.
"After 81 days of my abduction, a commander of the abductors came to the room, where I was kept captive, on December 7. He hugged me and said I was to be released immediately. I couldn't believe him completely. But when I saw that no arrangement for cooking was made that evening in the mud hut, I thought may be I would really be released," Noor told The Daily Star.
Instructed by the abductors, Noor shaved his moustache and took a shower. His captors then blindfolded him tightly again. "Held by two armed men, I walked for about an hour and a half. As we stopped, they took off the shawl I was wearing and the blindfold too."
"One of the captors said: Go, there is a car waiting for you. That was the most dangerous moment for me during the whole period of my captivity, because I was in between two groups. I didn't know who were the people waiting by the car and if they were ready to shoot me dead. I walked fast for about 20 yards and saw the silhouettes of four men with guns on the horizon. It was 7:32pm on my watch. They put me in an SUV. As the thing began to roll, one of the armed guys said they were security personnel of the Afghan state. I was then sure of my release."
The Afghan security men took Noor to the security chief of Logar Province.
"Once I arrived in Logar, I prayed to Allah expressing my gratitude and phoned my wife. I asked her to inform people about my release. She was very happy, I could feel her joy over the phone. She asked me to say 41 rakats of naphal [optional] prayers, and I kept her request."
The next day, the security men took Noor Islam to the chief of Afghan security in Kabul, 65 miles from Logar. "The security chief asked me, to whom I wanted to be handed over. I said to Brac Afghanistan's Country Director Gunendra Roy. Gunendrada came after some time and received me. I was sent home on December 13," Noor said with an ear to ear grin shining like the soothing sun of that winter morning.
Noor's wife Anwara also told The Daily Star about her harrowing uncertain days between the abduction and the release of her husband. On September 16, the day after Noor's abduction, a Brac official, Abul Kalam Azad, called her on the mobile phone from Jessore asking her how she was doing and saying he wanted to visit her.
"I was at my sister's in Faridpur that day. I immediately called my sister-in-law at my in-law's in Jamdia asking her to take care of the officer when he would visit. I was however thinking, there must have been something wrong, because the officer had never called me before," Anwara said.
Anwara then sent an SMS to Noor Islam in Afghanistan, but there was no reply. "I was sad, because he had never been late in replying before. I sent another message, but again didn't get any reply."
Running out of patience, she called Abul Kalam Azad asking him if there was anything wrong. Azad said her husband did not return to his residence from his office in Afghanistan the day before. "I don't even want to remember what happened next," she paused for a long time.
Brought back to the reality by another question, Anwara, mother of a five-year old boy Arian, went on again, "I could neither eat nor sleep since his abduction. Whenever I tried to eat something, I felt like throwing up. I had to be under constant medication."
"I survived a month only on saline solution. Slowly, I tried to become stronger by praying. After a month of the abduction, the wife of a Brac official informed me that my husband was still alive and that his picture had been shown on television. I asked a journalist if that was true, he collected the picture and gave it to me."
Soon, Anwara dived into the efforts to release her husband. "I went to Brac in Dhaka. They said they were trying. I went to the foreign ministry seeking their help. The foreign adviser said he was trying hard for my husband's release. I said, please try again, bring back my husband."
Once a Brac official phoned her saying that the foreign minister of Afghanistan asked them to assure her that her husband would return home soon. A cabinet minister of that country also made a similar assurance, Anwara said adding, "I then became hopeful of his return."
Anwara said during the three-month of her husband's captivity in the hands of unknown Afghan militants, there were always people around her to take care of her and her son. "I am usually very caring of my son, as he is a bit autistic, but during that time I didn't even feel like taking care of him. I became completely numb, devoid of any aspiration to live. I was praying to Allah for my death before hearing anymore bad news about my husband," she said.
Finally on December 7 when Anwara received a phone call from Noor Islam saying that he had been released, she first could not even trust her own ears and then was swooned.
"Nothing had ever been more joyous than that piece of news," Anwara said adding, "I want to start everything anew. I have been reborn."
Noor Islam said the foreign adviser called him after he had arrived home and told him, "You have a very good person for a wife! You are lucky! You should give her special thanks." Noor replied, "I already have.”