Kidnapped Brac officials released

Two Brac officials kidnapped in Afghanistan were released yesterday, more than two weeks after their abduction.

Engineer Shawkat Ali, 50, and Sirajul Islam Sumon, 37, an accountant at Brac in Afghanistan were released yesterday morning, M Anowar Hossain, country representative for Brac Afghanistan told The Daily Star over the phone.

“They are in good health,” he said.

The Brac officials were later taken to its Kabul office. They will return to Bangladesh after official formalities are completed, he said.

Asked whether the officials were rescued or released, he said they were released by their abductors following the combined efforts of the Afghan government and Brac.

Shawkat talked to his family on the phone yesterday afternoon.

Anjuman Ara Lucky, Shawkat's wife, quote her husband as saying, “I am doing well, please don't worry about me.”

Unidentified kidnappers abducted the duo with two other local Afghan staff of the NGO in Kunduz in the war-torn Afghanistan while they were going to work on March 17.

Their abductors, however, released the two Afghan men the same day. No militant group had claimed responsibility for the abduction.