12 abducted Bangladeshis brought back home from Iran

A dozen Bangladeshi migrants, who were held hostage in Iran by their fellow countrymen for ransom, were brought back home on Thursday. They arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) International Airport in Dhaka in the morning from Iran as Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police and Jessore-based rights group ‘Rights Jessore’ took initiatives to bring them back to Bangladesh. Briefing reporters at the CID headquarters in Dhaka on Thursday afternoon, CID’s Special Super (SS) Md Ashraful Islam said the department first came to know about the abduction of the Bangladeshi expatriates through Rights Jessore in 2013. Following their information, 29 people, including one Yunus of Jessore, were brought back in December last year. Later, the CID came to know about the abduction of 50 more Bangladeshi nationals in Iran, said Ashraful Islam. “Among them, 12 Bangladeshis returned home today while the others are waiting for their return to the country,” he said. CID sources said some Bangladeshi middlemen took the Bangladeshi expatriates to Iran from different Middle Eastern countries, including Dubai and Oman, alluring them of lucrative jobs in Greece. The middlemen also assured them that they need not to pay in advance as they can adjust the money from their salaries in phases. The middlemen took them to Port Abbas in Iran in the name of taking them to Greece and detained them in various remote places in Iran. Then the abductors demanded ransom from the families of the expatriate men in Bangladesh over phone, the CID sources said, according to UNB.