Seven Bangladeshi crews whom the somali’s pirates released last Saturday after 42 months, grief and despair returned homes on Thursday morning.
Four of them had been identified as Golam Mostafa, Habibur Rahman, Nurul Haque, and Abul Kashem. All of them hailed from Satkhira.
The other three sailors are Aminul Islam and Jakir Hossain Rajib from Chittagong and Limon Sarkar from Chandpur.
The sailors arrived at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) in the capital at around 8:45am, Immigration sources said.
They added that Shipping Minister Shajhahan Khan and State Minister for Home Shahriar Alam and government high officials received them.
Their victim’s family members were also present at the airport to receive them, the further said.
The relatives of the victims said that the crew were taken hostage along with MV Albedo on November 26, 2010 when Somali pirates hijacked the Malaysian flagged ship.
After long persuasion by the government as well as by the international rights organizations, their captors released the Bangladeshis alive on June 6, 2014..
Sources said that after their release last Saturday, they were taken to Nairobi, where the Bangladesh High Commission prepared their travel documents and took care of them.
The government appreciated the role of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the London-based Maritime Piracy and Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) for their continuous support and assistance in securing the hostage’s release, they added.
