IS takes Bangladeshi hostage in Libya

Terrorist group ISIS took hostage of a Bangladeshi along with eight other foreigners from Al-Ghani oil field in Libya on Friday.

The victim was identified as Helal Uddin, bearing passport No-B0156553 and hailing from Jamalpur, said Bangladesh foreign ministry today in a press statement after Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli confirmed it.

"The incident happened when gunmen invaded the Al-Ghani oil field, south of the city Sirte in Libya on Friday, killing 11 guards, beheading a number of them before local forces fought back to retake control," the statement said.

Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli is trying to find out the whereabouts of Helal, and is in close contact with National Oil Company (NOC) of Libya and the company concerned where the incident took place.

The foreign ministry is closely monitoring the incident with Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli, it said.

The New York Times, however, today reported that the abductees include two Bangladeshis, four Filipinos, an Austrian, a Czech and a Ghana national.

Four years after Col Muammar el-Qaddafi was ousted, Libya is caught up in a conflict between two rival governments and their armed forces fighting to control the country's oil resources.

The chaos has allowed militants from the Islamic State and Ansar al-Shariah to gain a foothold in the country.

During the Libyan crisis in 2011, over 36,000 Bangladeshi workers were repatriated home from the North African nation.

"Until now, Bangladesh has no plan to repatriate the migrants from Libya. It is because the situation is not so bad," an official of Bangladesh's expatriates' welfare and overseas welfare ministry told The Daily Star today.

Around two months back, some 40 foreign nationals, including three Bangladeshis, were abducted, but the Bangladeshis were released after they were identified as Muslims, the official said.

According to the ministry, there are nearly 25,000 Bangladeshis working in Libya.