Evacuated from Kabul: 6 Bangladeshi engineers return home

Six Bangladeshis, who were evacuated to Qatar from Afghanistan last week, have finally returned home last night.

"Thanks to Almighty. Also, gratitude to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, officials of the foreign ministry, all our relatives, friends, well-wishers, and media for their whole-hearted efforts and prayers," said Nusrat Rumi, sister of Razib Bin Islam, one of the six telecom engineers, on her Facebook post.

All the relatives were very worried about their getting stranded in the wake of political changeover in Afghanistan following Taliban seizing control on August 15. That worries are all over now, she said.

Razib Bin Islam, who worked for Afghan Wireless Communication Company, confirmed their return to The Daily Star.

The others include Md Kamruzzaman, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Imran Hossain, Abu Zafar Md Masud Karim and Shek Farid Uddin.

They arrived in Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport last night by an Emirates Airlines flight from Qatar via Dubai. Earlier on Saturday, they were evacuated from Kabul to Doha with the assistance of US authorities.

Another six Bangladeshis, who were evacuated from Kabul along with 148 Afghan female students of the Asian University for Women in Chattogram, were taken to Riyadh. They are also in the process of returning to Bangladesh.

Three Bangladeshis who worked for BRAC International are still in Kabul and BRAC is working to bring them home at the earliest. Earlier, nine BRAC officials were evacuated.

They all were scheduled to return on August 16 or before, but their flights were then repeatedly cancelled -- first after Taliban seizing control of Afghanistan and then after bomb blasts on August 26.