3 Bangladeshis stuck in Afghanistan reach Dhaka

Three Bangladeshis, who had been stranded following Taliban's control of Afghanistan, today arrived in Dhaka. 

The three are Brac International officials and were evacuated to Kazakhstan on August 22 and from there they reached Bangladesh in a Turkish Airlines flight, Brac said in a statement today.

Of the total 12 Bangladeshi staff of Brac International, six had returned home before the Taliban takeover on August 15. Of the remaining six, three returned home today and the other three were still in Kabul and they were safe, it said.

"Brac is making utmost effort to repatriate them to Bangladesh," said Brac, which has been working in Afghanistan for the last 19 years and has some 3000 employees, mostly Afghans.

Apart from that, 12 other Bangladeshis, including six telecom engineers, were evacuated to Qatar. Some of the 160 Afghan students of Asian University for Women in Chattogram were also evacuated to Qatar, foreign ministry officials said.

Razib Bin Islam, head of PBX & Contact Center Operations at Telephone Systems International, of Afghanistan, told this correspondent last night that six of the telecom engineers with their company support were able to get inside the airport.

"After that, with the US embassy and US military support, we got evacuated along with their citizens in same US military flight and reached Doha, Qatar," he said.

They then communicated with Mashfee Binte Shams, secretary (east) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka, who then advised the Bangladesh embassy in Doha to provide all support to the Bangladeshis for returning home.

"We are already in touch with them for further arrangements. We're secure and are with other US citizens at a US base in Doha," Razib Bin Islam said.

Mashfee Binte Shams, secretary (east) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told this correspondent yesterday that six Bangladeshis were scheduled to fly to Qatar last night.

The 15 Bangladeshis and 160 student were supposed to fly from Afghanistan to Bangladesh last Thursday and they also went to the Hamid Karzai International Airport but the flight was cancelled at the last moment following the bomb blasts that killed nearly 100 people, including Afghans and US troops.

There were about 30 Bangladeshis stranded in Afghanistan since the Taliban's seizing control of the country on August 15 following withdrawal of US troops.

The rest of the Bangladeshis stranded were yet to approach Bangladesh authorities for returning, Mashfee Binte Shams said.