17 BD hostages

Almost half of the 300 foreigners, held hostage by anti-government protesters in the Libyan city of Darnah, have been shifted to Egypt border. The hostages evacuated by the Libyan army Wednesday night include 17 Bangladeshis, one of the rescued Bangladeshi hostages, Shafiuddin Biswas, told bdnews24.com over phone Thursday morning. "As many as 150 of the hostages were safely brought to the Egyptian frontier on board two vehicles of the Continued from page 8 col. 8 Libyan army," he said expressing his ignorance about the fate of the remaining hostages. "Perhaps, they have also been handed over to their respective company authorities," Shafiuddin said. Those who have been shifted to the Egyptian border will be flown to Egypt on board an Egyptian aircraft, he added. He, however, said passports of all of the evacuated persons had been kept to their respective company authorities. "The companies have assured us that they would hand over the passports before noon," Shafiuddin said. Anti-government protesters held about 300 foreigners, including over 100 Bangladeshis, hostage in Darnah, east of Benghazi. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday that so far there has been no report of causality of any Bangladesh nationals living in Libya. It further said that the Bangladesh Embassy in Tripoli is in constant touch with the representatives of Bangladesh community across Libya. The government is taking steps to ensure safety and security of its citizens in Libya, including emergency measures if the situation demands, the release said. Meanwhile, the government has opened a control room at the secretariat so that people could have information about Bangladeshis living in protest-hit Libya. The control room was set up at room number 418 of the expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry at the seventh building of the secretariat, said an official release on Thursday. The phone numbers to contact the control room are: 7168606, mobile phone numbers: 01914-871118, 01552-368551 and 01819-262175. Fax: 7160688 and email addresses: [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]