Bangladesh seeks US assistance to rescue abducted BRAC official in Afghanistan

Bangladesh has made a request to the United States authorities in seeking release of the abducted aid workers of the countrys leading non-governmental organisation operating in Afghanistan.

By Nazrul Islam

Dhaka, Sept 19 : Bangladesh has made a request to the United States authorities in seeking release of the abducted aid workers of the country's leading non-governmental organisation operating in Afghanistan.

Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed made the request during the official talks between him and the visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of States for South and Central Asia Affairs, John Gastrait, today.

The talks were extremely cordial, said a statement of the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs after the meeting

"Apart form domestic and international issues, Iftekhar requested for possible Unites States assistance in seeking the release of the abducted aid workers in Afghantistan," an official of the ministry said.

A gang of six gunmen stormed into an office of Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, the organisation operating in war-torn Afghanistan for reconstruction, and kidnapped Nurul Islam at Pul-i-Alam, about 50 kilometres south of Kabul, on Sunday, three days after another executive of the aid agency was killed by gunmen there.

Earlier, Bangladesh's Foreign Affairs Adviser in a statement expressed grave concern at the abduction of a Bangladeshi national working for BRAC in Afghanistan.

"We fervently appeal to those who have abducted him to immediately release him. His mission in Afghanistan is purely humanitarian and he is there only to help his Afghan brethren," he stated.

Meanwhile, a section of newspapers in Bangladesh in their editorials called the government for launching tri-partite dialogue involving United States, which launched a war in Afghanistan after the much-talked about twin-tower attacks in on September 11,2001, in the process to rescue the abducted the aid worker.

BRAC has been working in Afghanistan since 2002, especially for providing humanitarian assistance and empower the poor economically through micro-credit schemes.

Another aid worker, Abdul Alim, who was killed in the war-ravaged country by unidentified assailants, was buried at his ancestral home in Tangail district His body was flown from Kabul to Dhaka on Wednesday. Alim had been working for the BRAC's micro-credit scheme in Afghanistan.

The BRAC executives in Dhaka earlier on Monday said they might rethink their operation in Afghanistan.

ANI