Five Bangladeshis abducted in Afghanistan by unidentified gunmen have been released, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry’s spokesman said the gunmen shot dead one Bangladeshi engineer while taking seven hostage near the northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif in December 2010. Two were released two days later. “We have been able to obtain the release of the five after long negotiations and hectic diplomatic efforts. We did not pay any ransom for their freedom,” said Mohammad Shameem Ahsan, the foreign ministry’s director general. Most of those abducted were working for a South Korean firm in Afghanistan. Shameem gave no information on the abductors.
