Police find 10 captives while trying to rescue 8 in Teknaf

Police initiated an operation to rescue eight people who were abducted in the last two days from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar, but they found a total of 10 people who were kidnapped from different locations.

They were rescued around 12:30pm on Wednesday in Jahajpura hilly area of Teknaf in a long six-and-a-half-hour operation.

However, the police could not catch the kidnappers, operations were ongoing to nab them, said Teknaf Model police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Muhammad Osman Gani.

After tracking the location of the abducted people using information technology, about 50 policemen from Teknaf police station, Whykong and Baharchhara outposts started the rescue operation around 6pm on Wednesday, said OC Muhammad Osman Gani.

The police were joined by the Rapid Action Battalion, he added.

At one stage of the operation they surrounded the entire hill and around 12:30am, the kidnappers fled leaving the 10 people behind. Later, they were rescued and given first aid.

Among them, six people were abducted from the western hilly area of Rohingya Camp No 12 in Unchiprang of Whykong around 2pm on Wednesday, two people were abducted while grazing cows in the Kombaniya hilly area of Whykong union in Teknaf on Tuesday and two others on Wednesday afternoon from Putibuniya hilly area.

Meanwhile, families of the abducted have refused to provide any information or file any complaint, said the OC.

Member of Whykong union parishad Md Shahjalal previously said around 2pm someone from the kidnapping gang called a family member of the abducted and demanded a ransom of Tk3 lakh.

They threatened to kill the abductees if police were informed, he added.

In the last one year, 117 people have been abducted from different areas of Teknaf. Sixty-nine of them are local residents, the rest are Rohingyas. At least 51 of the kidnapped victims have been released for ransom, according to the families of the abductors.