MV Abdullah, a Bangladeshi cargo vessel, that was hijacked by a group of Somali pirates was around 150 nautical miles off the Somalian coast till Wednesday (March 13, 2024) evening. “And the ship will reach the Somalia anchorage by tomorrow morning,” Mizanul Islam, media consultant of KSRM Group, told UNB. ‘If money is not given, they will kill us’: Audio message of hijacked ship’s chief officer “All the crew members are safe and sound now on the hijacked vessel,” he added. On Tuesday, the ship, carrying coal from Mozambique’s Maputo port to Al Hamriyah Port in the UAE, was attacked around noon. Please pray, says hijacked ship Abdullah's chief engineer to his family MV Abdullah is owned by SR Shipping Lines – a sister company of Chattogram-based Kabir Steel and Rerolling Mill (KSRM) Group. All crew members are being held hostage by the pirates, said KSRM’s media adviser Mizanul Islam. Govt in touch with international bodies to rescue hijacked Bangladeshi ship, its crew: FM

Mina Azmin, wife of Mohammad Atique Ullah Khan, chief officer of the Bangladeshi ship MV Abdullah that was hijacked by Somali pirates, had to be admitted to a hospital after fainting repeatedly. Atique sent an audio message to his wife around iftar time on Tuesday (March 12, 2024). Atique’s audio message said, “They are taking our mobile phones away. The bottom line is, if the money is not given, they will kill us one by one. The sooner the money is given, the sooner they will let us go. Please, get this message out.” Atique is from Chandanaish upazila of Chattogram. He lives in the Nandan Kanan area of the port city with his mother, wife and three daughters. His elderly mother Shahnoor Begum and children broke down in tears when this correspondent went to their home last night. Shahnoor Begum was crying and hugging a framed picture of Atique. Govt in touch with international bodies to rescue hijacked Bangladeshi ship, its crew: FM "A day feels like a year! I was told that we’ll have to wait a few months to get our son back. How will I live with this sorrow?" — Shahnoor Begum wailed. With her son held hostage by Somali pirates and daughter-in-law unwell, Shahnoor Begum was visibly worried. She said, "In his last voice message, my son told my daughter-in-law, ‘If they don't give the money, they will kill us.' She has been ill ever since she got that message. “She is expecting. After losing consciousness several times on Tuesday night, we took her to a private hospital. After treatment, we brought her home. She is still ill! “My son Atique took the responsibility of the whole family. He has been working on the ship since 2007. Now he is in terrible danger! I don't know how my son is, if he has food to eat. “We were sitting down to have Iftar on the first day of Ramadan. I just put a date in my mouth; at that time the phone rang. My son said that Somali pirates had attacked their ship. The ship is now under their control.” Please pray, says hijacked ship Abdullah's chief engineer to his family

Four Rohingya refugees who were abducted from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar have been released in exchange for a ransom of Tk 5 lakh. The abducted Rohingyas are: Mohammad Yunus, 32, son of Nur Hossain; Mohammad Sultan, 24, son of Mohammad Rafiq; Abdullah, 16, son of Abdur Rahman; and Anwar Islam, 18, son of Mohammad Syed. They are all residents of Alikhali Rohingya Camp-25, Block D/22, under Hnila union of Teknaf. Read: 2 BCL leaders arrested for abduction, robbery at Dhaka College The abducted Rohingyas returned home on Monday (June 5) evening, said Jamal Pasha, superintendent of police and deputy commander of 16 Armed Police Battalion (APBn). They were given first aid at the NGO hospital. Later, the APBn members handed them over to their families, he added. Read: Ctg boy killed after abduction for ransom; 2 arrested Earlier on Friday (June 2, 2023) night, five Rohingyas were abducted by miscreants from Alikhali camp in Teknaf. Of them, Jahangir Alam was dropped off, with his hands cut off, near the camp on Sunday (June 4, 2023) evening. Later, locals rescued him and took him to the hospital. He is now receiving treatment at the hospital. Read: Abduction in guise of DB: Constable put on 1-day remand

Police arrested four persons for realising Tk 1.85 lakh from an apparel businessman after he was abducted on October 7. Though police produced the arrestees with a remand prayer before a court on Tuesday, it sent them to jail fixing Wednesday for the hearing in this connection. Md Kamrul Islam, officer-in-charge of South Surma Police Station, confirmed the matter to UNB.    Police had arrested them from Humayun Rashid Chattar in South Surma upazila by Monday, but only disclosed the matter today.   The arrestees are Md Tamij Ali, 40, son of late Abdus Samad of Chhatak upazila, Topu Ranjan Dev, 35, son of late Romendra Narayan Dev of Kotwali, Md Sajjad Mia, 45, son of late Anrej Mia and Md Nayon Mia, 35, son of late Sheikh Majid Mia of an area under Sylhet airport police station. Read: 7 get 10 years jail for abduction in Khulna Police said the apparel businessman had been waiting for a bus to take him to Dhaka in front of the Al Safa Rest House, located within the upazila, around 5am on October 7. That’s when four persons riding two motorbikes abducted him and took him to a rest house in Zindabazar of the city, asking for Tk 3 lakh as ransom, the police said. The abductors were able to get Tk 85,000 off him, at the same time targeting his wife and pressuring her into transferring another Tk 1 lakh to them. After receiving the amount, the kidnappers released him around 2am on October 8. OC Kamrul said they arrested the abductors on Monday after the victim filed a case in this connection.

A human trafficking gang has asked for Tk 8.5 lakh each for sparing the lives of four illegal Italy immigration seeker men from Habiganj.  The missing men were identified as MD Sajanur Rahman, 35, son of Abdul Mukit Khan from Paschimbagh village in Ajmiriganj upazila, Afzal, son of Sajlu Mia from the same village, Md Nasir Mia,20, son of Sekular Mia, and Ujjal, 27, son of safar Ali from noabad area in Habiganj city, according to their families.  The gang asked for the money over phone calls on Wednesday and said they would dump their bodies in the Mediterranean Sea if they don’t get it by Monday, said the family members of the hostage immigration seekers.  Read: 9 killed in Gopalganj road crash “Sajanur left for Italy on February last year and reached Benghazi in Libya with the help of a broker named Marutza but he sold my brother to another broker named Sabu Mia But Sajanur got caught by Coast Guards there and had to pay Tk 3 lakh as fine. Later another broker named Taimur who used to live in Noabad in Habiganj city took the responsibility of sending him to Italy,” said Md Asiur Rahman, a primary school teacher and brother of Sajanur Rahman.  Asiur Rahman said different brokers have so far taken around Tk 12 lakh from them and now they are worried how they will pay the ransom money.  “My brother took up the illegal way to change the economic condition of family only. My brother told on phone the traffickers have kept nine people from Habiganj in a boat at Mediterranean Sea and were torturing them.” Said Asiur Rahman.  Martuza Hasan, Chairman of Ajmiriganj Upazila Parishad confirmed his relative Sajanur’s family received calls from some traffickers demanding money. “But I have no idea about other people who were threatened, “he said.  Afzal’s father Sazlu Mia, Nasir’s father Sekular Mia and Ujjal’s father-in-law Md Faruq Mia claimed all of them were kept hostage by a gang of broker which is led by a local broker named Taimur Mia. They said they are all too poor to pay the ransom money and fearing their relatives will be killed soon.  Meanwhile Taimur’s wife claimed she has no idea about such incident and she has no contact with her husband for a long time. 

Charges have been pressed against six members of Chattogram Metropolitan Police (CMP) over kidnapping a man to demand ransom money. Chattogram Senior Judicial magistrate Najmun Nahar accepted the charge sheet submitted by police on Sunday and granted bail to the six accused until the trial in the case begins on January 26, said Inspector Humayun Kabir of Chattogram district police. Earlier on December 4, the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), submitted the charge sheet against the six accused. Also read: 3 cops suspended as Rohingya man flees police custody in Ctg The accused are, Constable Morshed Billah, bodyguard of CMP commissioner, Constable Md Masud, bodyguard of CMP Deputy Commissioner (Detective branch), Constable Shakil Khan and Eskandor deployed at Dampara Reserve Force Office, Constable Monirul Islam, computer operator of Assitant police Commissiner’s Karnaphuli office, Constable Abdul Nabi from Detective Branch (North). According to the case, on February 3 midnight, eight youths on four motorcycles abducted a man named Abdul Mannan from Purbo Bairag village under Anwara police station. Thecyouths identified themselves as police and one of them was wearing a jacket with DB (Detective Branch) written on it. They took Mannan to the Bhellapara area in Patia and demanded Tk 10 lakh to acquit him from the many cases filed against his name at the police station. Also read: Mob surrounds police station in Rangpur accusing cops of beating a person to death Mannan was released later after he paid them Tk 1,80,000. Mannan heard the name of Morshed from their conversation and filed a case in this regard on February 7 at Anwara police station. Finding proof of those accused constables being involved in the incident CMP authority filed a departmental case after suspending them.

A gang that kidnapped 17 members of a U,S.-based missionary group has demanded a $17 million ransom for them, according to Haiti's justice minister, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Justice Minister Liszt Quitel said the gang was demanding $1 million per person. Quitel did not immediately return messages for comment, but he also confirmed the figure to the New York Times. The Journal said he identified the ages of the abducted children as 8 months and 3, 6, 14 and 15 years. A wave of kidnappings prompted a protest strike that shuttered businesses, schools and public transportation in a new blow to Haiti's anemic economy, and unions and other groups vowed to continue the shutdown Tuesday. FBI agents and other U.S. officials are helping Haitian authorities hunt for the 12 adults and five children linked to the Christian Aid Ministries in Ohio who were kidnapped Saturday during a trip to visit an orphanage. It is the largest reported kidnapping of its kind in recent years, with Haitian gangs growing more brazen and abductions spiking as the country tries to recover from the July 7 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck southern Haiti on Aug. 14 and killed more than 2,200 people. “We are calling on authorities to take action,” said Jean-Louis Abaki, a moto taxi driver who joined the strike Monday to decry killings and kidnappings in the hemisphere's poorest nation. With the usually chaotic streets of Haiti’s capital quiet and largely empty Monday, Abaki said that if Prime Minister Ariel Henry and National Police Chief Léon Charles want to stay in power, “they have to give the population a chance at security.” Haitian police told The Associated Press that the abduction of the 16 Americans and one Canadian was carried out by the 400 Mawozo gang, a group with a long record of killings, kidnappings and extortion. In April, a man who claimed to be the gang's leader told a radio station that it was responsible for abducting five priests, two nuns and three relatives of one of the priests that month. They were later released. Also read: US religious group says 17 missionaries kidnapped in Haiti At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, said a report last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti. Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, bus passengers and others as they grow more powerful and demand ransoms ranging from a couple hundred dollars to millions of dollars. Ned Price, the U.S. State Department's spokesman, said U.S. officials have been in constant contact with Haiti's National Police, the missionary group and the victims' relatives. “This is something that we have treated with the utmost priority since Saturday,” he said, adding that officials are doing “all we can to seek a quick resolution to this.” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the rise in gang violence has affected relief efforts in Haiti. He said the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator reported that “violence, looting, road blockades and the persistent presence of armed gangs all pose obstacles to humanitarian access. The situation is further complicated by very serious fuel shortages and the reduced supply of goods." Dujarric said that Haiti's government should redouble efforts to reform and strengthen the police department to address public safety and that all crimes must be investigated. Christian Aid Ministries said the kidnapped group included six women, six men and five children, including a 2-year-old. A sign on the door at the organization’s headquarters in Berlin, Ohio, said it was closed due to the kidnapping situation. Among those kidnapped were four children and one of their parents from a Michigan family, their pastor told The Detroit News. The youngest from the family is under 10, said minister Ron Marks, who declined to identify them. They arrived in Haiti earlier this month, he said. A pair of traveling Christians stopped by the organization’s headquarters Monday with two young children to drop off packages for impoverished nations. Tirtzah Rarick, originally of California, said she and a friend prayed on Sunday with those who had relatives among the abductees. “Even though it’s painful and it provokes us to tears that our friends and relatives, our dear brothers and sisters, are suffering right now in a very real physical, mental and emotional way, it is comforting to us that we can bring these heavy burdens to the God that we worship,” she said. News of the kidnappings spread swiftly in and around Holmes County, Ohio, hub of one of the nation’s largest populations of Amish and conservative Mennonites, said Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in nearby Millersburg, Ohio. Christian Aid Ministries is supported by conservative Mennonite, Amish and related groups in the Anabaptist tradition. The organization was founded in the early 1980s and began working in Haiti later that decade, said Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The group has year-round mission staff in Haiti and several countries, he said, and it ships religious, school and medical supplies throughout the world. Conservative Anabaptists, while disagreeing over technology and other issues, share traditions such as modest, plain clothing, separation from mainstream society, closely disciplined congregations and a belief in nonresistance to violence. Also read: Protest strike shuts down Haiti amid search for missionaries The Amish and Mennonite communities in Holmes County have a close connection with missionary organizations serving Haiti. Every September at the Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction, handmade furniture, quilts, firewood and tools are sold, and barbecue chicken and Haitian beans and rice are dished up. The event typically brings in about $600,000 that is split between 18 missionary groups, said Aaron Miller, one of the organizers.

A woman and her associate were arrested from Chattogram on Thursday night for holding a lawyer hostage and attempted ransoming. The arrestees have been identified as Zobaida Sultana Hira alias Sonia and Imran. Sonia is the leader of a notorious fraud gang, Double Mooring Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Mohammad Mohsin told the media Friday evening. Police said Sonia requested lawyer Habibur Rahman Azad to come to her place to help her out with a case. When he went there, three men nabbed him and demanded Tk 20,000. The also threatened to kill him if he did not give them the money. But Azad managed to call police. A team from Double Mooring Police Station raided the house on Thursday night and rescued the lawyer. Police say they are trying to arrest the other criminals associated with the gang. Sonia told police during interrogation that her gang was involved in at least 50 similar cases in the last 10 years, the OC said. She is accused in three criminal cases filed at various police stations in the port city.