The families of two Bangladeshi men kidnapped by Islamic State in Libya said they were in grave concern over the safety of the abductees.
Helal Uddin from Jamalpur and Mohammad Anowar Hossain from Noakhali are among the nine foreigners who were abducted by Islamic State militants from Al Ghani oil field near Sirte, about 700km south-east of Libyan capital Tripoli, on March 6.
Helal’s wife Aleya Begum said she had repeatedly phoned her husband in Libya over the past few days but nobody picked up.
“On Tuesday, the phone was picked up twice in the morning but someone spoke in Arabic which I did not understand. The phone was then switched off till 9:27 this morning and the person on the other end said nothing when I called shortly after. Since then, the number remains unreachable,” she told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Helal, son of Amad Sheikh of Gojaria village under Adarbhita union, had been working in Libya for five years. The last time he came to Bangladesh to visit his family on a two-month holiday was in 2014.
Alyea said her husband is the sole breadwinner of the family and they all remain extremely worried about him since his abduction.
The couple has three daughters and two sons.
Alyea told the Dhaka Tribune that she had no idea what Islamic State was and why the group had kidnapped her husband.
“I call on the government to rescue my husband as early as possible,” she said.
Deputy Commissioner of Jamalpur, Md Shahabuddin Khan, said the administration had constantly been in touch with the ministry and Helal’s family.
“We will help Helal’s family in all possible ways in this tough time,” he added.
Meanwhile, Anowar’s wife Marufa Khatun said she first came to know about her husband’s abduction after watching the news on television on Tuesday.
She said she had tried several times to reach her husband over phone but got no response.
Marufa then called Moinul Hossain, one of her husband’s friends who also lives in Libya, and he told her that Anowar had been taken hostage by Islamic State.
“I talked to Anowar at 11pm on March 5 and that was our last phone conversation,” she said.
Md Mahmud Iqbal, brother-in-law of Anowar, said he had contacted Foreign Ministry officials and also the Bangladesh ambassador to Libya, Maj Gen Shahidul Haque.
“The ambassador told me in an e-mail that officials were trying their best to rescue Anowar,” he added.
Abu Taher, one of Anowar’s neighbours, described the expat as a good man.
Thirty-eight-year-old Anowar earned a diploma degree from Chittagong Polytechnic Institute and worked in Saudi Arabia from 2001 to 2007.
He tied the knot in 2007 and went to Libya in 2010. In December 2011, he returned for over a month before flying back on February 11, 2012.
Anowar and Marufa have two children – Rahin, 7, and Raisha, 5.
Both the families have called on the government to rescue the two men.