A group of armed assailants abducted 26 workers from rubber plantations in the remote Murungjhiri area of Fasiakhali in Lama upazila, Bandarban, on Sunday.

Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Lama Police Station Md Shahadat Hossain said the incident took place around 10:30am when armed miscreants raided several rubber plantations in Ward No 1 of Fasiakhali union.

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The assailants took 26 workers hostage at gunpoint before fleeing the scene.

According to the plantation owners, the names of 20 abducted workers have been identified. They are: Md Faruk (26), Ayub Ali (26), Md Siddiq (40), Abdul Khalek (20), Abdul Majed (17), Monirul Islam (30), Ziaur Rahman (45), Md Mobarak (25), Md Harun (30), Romiz Uddin (32), Syed Nur (28), Md Kaysar (38), Monir Hossain (35), Md Imran (17), Md Manjurul (30), Abshar Ali (25), Khairul Amin (30), Abu Bakkar (28), Abdur Razzak (33), and Md Mobin (25).

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The identities of the remaining six workers are yet to be confirmed.

Md Shahjahan, a plantation owner in Murungjhiri, said that 26 workers were kidnapped from six plantations, with 12 being taken from his plantation alone.

He further revealed that the abductors called him in the afternoon using a phone belonging to one of the kidnapped workers. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Tk 50,000 per worker, amounting to a total of Tk 600,000 for his 12 workers.

OC Shahadat Hossain said that law enforcers, including police and the army, have launched a rescue operation.

He suspects the involvement of hill-based armed groups, who were also responsible for the abduction of tobacco field workers in Sarai Union’s Bamukhali area a few days ago.