<i>Tale of another rescued from Afghan captors </i>

Mahbub Ali, rescued from over seven months' confinement by abductors in Afghanistan, is back to his family and friends at Mohon Nagar village home in Charghat upazila under Rajshahi district. The photo was taken on Monday. Photo: STAR

Returning home meant a rebirth for Mahbub Ali, who spent seven and a half months in captivity amid fear of death under the militants in Afghanistan.
The horrifying ordeal during the period left a detrimental effect on him as typhoid and kidney problems were detected in the medical check-up done after his release in Afghanistan on August 2.
Mahbub, abducted by Afghan militants on December 17 last year from his workplace Korean construction company Samwhan Corporation's camp in Mazar-i-Sharif, returned home on Sunday along with four other colleagues who had borrowed the same fate.
Talking to this correspondent at his Mohon Nagar village home in Charghat upazila, Mahbub described the horrifying tale of his abduction and captivity.
"When Afghan militants attacked our camp I hid under a bed. The attackers stormed our room firing gunshots. Finding Kazi Altaf Hossain, a Bangladeshi engineer from Pabna, they asked him to go out.
"As a panicked Altaf hesitated, a gunman dragged him by his shirt and shot him twice. Altaf's body bumped a little on the floor before becoming quiet in a pool of blood.
“Then the gunmen's torchlight fell on me. He ordered me to go out. Uttering kalema (basic Islamic faith) loudly, I hurriedly out from under the bed. I pulled over Altaf's body and my hands and legs got wet with his blood.
"They held seven people from the camp. Two of the captives, exhausted and fallen sick, were left behind on the way.
"The militants took us to a remote village in the hills and kept us with a family for 52 days. Then they took us to a cave for one night and shifted to another house for 22 days. Then again they took us to first house before taking to a cave in a big hill.
Mahbub said their last three months of captivity in the hill cave was much more horrendous than the previous period.
"We were kept in chains while armed militants, locally called mujahids, kept on guarding outside. Occasionally huge snakes were seen inside the cave. We managed to kill five snakes. Fear of snakebite often haunted us.
"They gave us hard, dry bread and rice cooked in oil. We got it difficult to consume. When we felt hungry, we had one or two bites on the bread and the next moment we forgot hunger,” Mahbub said.
He said his captors introduced themselves as mujahids coming to Afghanistan from Uzbekistan for jihad in favour of Islam.
The day before their release, the captors let them take bath. Making them promise not to return for road construction work, they videoed the scene.
Replying to a question, Mahbub said, “We don't know whether any ransom was given. On four occasions before taking us to unknown places, they got video recording of us saying that we are still alive.”
"I did not see the mujahids working for livelihood… they have no work but to eat, sleep in turns and walk around with heavy arms on their shoulders," he said.