& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

29 Workers Back From Iran

Nothing left to happen in 3-month ordeal

Belal Hossain Biplob ami Wasim Bin Habib
They were all smiles. But you could still sense there was something wrong - one of the 30 Bangladeshi migrants kept confined in Iran for three months was not with them. He too was freed like his 29 compatriots, but died a tragic death a week before he could make it home.
Ill-fated Jewel Mollah, 24, was allegedly beaten to death by six of his fellow workers over a dispute at Bandar Abbas in Iran on December 14.
The 29 others landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 10:00am yesterday, after enduring brutal torture for three months of captivity.
They included the six alleged culprits - Nur Muhammad and Salim Ullah of Cox's Bazar, Yasin of Feni, Lalon of Madaripur, Zurif Ullah of Sunamganj
and Manik of Chandpur. They were arrested at the airport and will be produced in a court today in a case filed by Jewel's father.
Family members of the 29 were elated at the reunion, and they hugged and kissed their sons and brothers.
But things were different for Jewel's family.
"I'm an ill-fated father who is alive to bear the pain of losing his son abroad. My son was freed from the kidnappers. But the killers took his life. How can I take this shock?" howled Shahjahan Mollah, Jewel's father.
Sohel Mollah, Jewel's elder brother, said: "Everyone was hugging their sons, where is my brother? What was his fault?"
Nothing left
FROM PAGE 1
Jewel went to the United Arab Emirates three years ago to work as a labourer.
On his death, Ruhul Amin, one of the returnees, said Jewel had a dispute with some of the six and they beat him over the dispute on December 14. When they came to know about the beating, they took him to a hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Jamal, another returnee who was Jewel's roommate, gave a similar version.
Criminal Investigation Department Inspector Borhan Uddin, who interrogated the 29 at the airport, told this newspaper that Jewel was killed over a brawl with the six.
But Jewel's sister Kalpana Akhter alleged her brother was killed as they could not send any money.
Before the fateful story of the 30 began in September, they were working in the UAE and Oman. A group of Bangladeshis involved in kidnapping and human trafficking in some Middle East countries offered them jobs in Greece, Turkey and Italy.
When they agreed, the gang took the migrants to Bandar Abbas by a risky speedboat journey through the Arabian Sea. And their nightmare began. The gang confined them in a house in a deep jungle near the sea, family members said.
Soon, the abductors started torturing them and forced their families to pay ransom to stop torture. The 29 victims gave the gang around Tk 95 lakh in phases through B-kash, a mobile money transferring service.
This means the gang has local agents who collected the money. Police have already arrested one Farid, who runs a computer shop and B-kash service in Chandpur, in this connection.
Some of the money was transacted through Farid's B-kash account, police said.
Only Jewel's family could not send any money.
Ramij Uddin, father of Al Amin, one of the returnees, said he paid Tk 4.6 lakh in ransom to Rabiul Hossain Manik, one of the kidnappers, in phases (He is not the
Manik arrested yesterday.)
" My son cried over the phone, asking us to send money to save his life. I could guess the scale to torture my son was undergoing," Ramij added.
Family members of other victims also claimed they paid ransom to Rabiul Hossain Manik through B-kash accounts.
Describing the torture, Ruhul Amin said: "No one can imagine how the abductors tortured us. They always beat us and threatened to kill us if our families failed to give them money."
The kidnappers often hung them upside down, he said, adding: "Some of us sometimes became senseless because of torture. I'm happy that I'm home."
After three months of torture, the victims finally saw a ray of hope when Binoy Krishna Mallik, executive director of Rights Jessore, an NGO, came to know about their captivity on November 16, and subsequently contacted the Bangladesh Embassy in Tehran.
Binoy then spoke to some of the victims by phone and advised them to escape and go to police.
In the meantime, the abductors somehow sensed that the victims were in touch with the embassy. Fearing arrests, they themselves were trying to flee, leaving the captives, Binoy told The Daily Star.
The victims managed to escape at the end of last month and go to police, he added.
The Bangladesh Embassy in Iran and police took them to a shelter house in Tehran, where Jewel was beaten to death a few days later.
Family members and the embassy, meanwhile, communicated with the GID to trace the families of the abductors.
The GID arrested the father and the wife of Manik from Chandpur and the wife of another kidnapper, Jamal Hossain, from Dhaka late last month.
The 29 victims returned to Bangladesh with the help of the Bangladesh Mission in Iran.
Jewel's body is at a mortuary in Tehran, but officials could not immediately say when the body would arrive.