Bangladeshis safe in Iraq: BD envoy

Bangladeshi nationals living in Iraq are so far safe and no Bangladeshi nurse has been held hostage in Tikrit, a strategically important city of Iraq, said the Bangladesh Ambassador in Baghdad on Saturday. A number of local media quoting Indian media claimed that 10 Bangladeshi nurses, employed in a Hospital in Tikrit city, have been in the captivity of the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) supporters. ‘There was no Bangladeshi nurse (in that hospital). Indian nurses were there,’ Ambassador Maj Gen Rezanur Rahman Khan has said. The envoy, however, he said some 31 Bangladeshi male workers, mostly cleaners, used to work in the hospital and they have been taken to a safe zone. ‘We’re in touch with them and they’re fine.’ Responding to a question, the envoy said, “Nothing is favorable in the war-hit country, but the good news is that there’s no report of casualty (Bangladesh nationals).” Meanwhile, India brought back 46 nurses on Saturday by a special Air India flight who were freed by militants in Iraq on Friday evening, according to UNB.