Twenty-five rubber plantation workers out of 26, who were kidnapped from Lama Upazila in Bandarban, have been released by armed criminals after a ransom of Tk10 lakh was paid.
They were released on Tuesday morning, confirmed Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Shahadat Hossain of Lama police station.
The released workers are: Faruk, 26, Ayub Ali, 26, Siddiq, 40, Abdul Khalek, 20, Abdul Majed, 17, Monirul Islam, 30, Ziaur Rahman, 45, Mobarak, 25, Harul, 30, Syed Nur, 28, Romiz Uddin, 30, Kaishar, 38, Monir Hossain, 35, Imran, 17, Manjur, 30, Afsar Ali, 25, Khairul Amin, 30, Abu Bakkar, 29, Abdur Razzak, 33, and Mobin, 25.
All of them are residents of Ramu and Eidgah in Cox’s Bazar, and Naikhyangchhari Upazila in Bandarban.
The identities of six others remain unknown. Among them, Ziaur Rahman managed to escape from the clutches of the criminals on Monday morning, although he was injured.
Arafat Rubber Garden owner Md Forkan said that the kidnapped workers were severely beaten, and they were freed after paying the Tk10 lakh ransom. They are currently receiving treatment at Eidgah Hospital in Cox’s Bazar.
In this regard, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Operations) Md Abdul Karim of Bandarban confirmed that the 25 workers were released by the criminals on Tuesday morning and are now receiving medical treatment.
Earlier, on January 14 and February 1, armed criminals had abducted 14 workers from the Sarai Union of the same upazila in two separate incidents. They were later rescued in joint military operations.
