'Pray for me, my family'

“Pray for me and my family,” these were the words of Piyali Chowdhury, who was trapped inside “Atia Mahal”, to her colleague over phone early today.

Read more: Save my tenants first: Sylhet house owner

“How will we survive as we don’t have adequate food in our house,” Nasir Uddin quoted Piyali as saying.

Piyali, a schoolteacher, along with her child, husband, mother-in-law and sister-in-law remained trapped inside the five-storey building in Shibbari area of Sylhet, where the suspected militants are believed to have been holding up since early Friday.

Also read: Army enters Sylhet militant hideout

Nazrul Islam, who was rescued from the building today said, “I along with my wife and kid was trapped since Thursday”.

“I last came out of my flat at noon on Thursday,” Nazrul said adding “But when I tried to come out in the night, I saw police cordoned off the building and warned me not to come outside”.

A total of 50 among the 100 trapped people were rescued from the building around noon and were kept at Jahir, Tahir Memorial High School in the area.

Army personnel are now providing saline and dry foods to the rescued people.