FM may appeal for driver's release thru' Al-Jazeera
Staff Correspondent
Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan is likely to make an appeal through Al-Jazeera Television to the abductors to free the Bangladeshi truck driver Abul Kashem Faruk.Al-Jazeera, a Qatar-based Arabic news channel, contacted the foreign ministry yesterday seeking appointment with Morshed Khan. But the foreign minister could not be reached yesterday as he was on a visit to New Delhi. The television channel, however, was given the phone number of the hotel he is staying, foreign ministry sources said. Al-Jazeera was the first to broadcast a video message picturing him and a Sri Lankan driver held by Iraqi militant outfit Islamic Army of Iraq (IAI) on October 29 Thursday, and is expected to be a useful channel of communication between the abductors and Bangladesh government. Morshed is interested in the interview offered by Al-Jazeera because it is an Arabic channel and can be easily accessible to the abductors as it covers a wide area in Iraq, the sources added. The foreign minister had already launched an appeal through different news media. But there has not been any response from the abductors and no contact has yet been established with the abductors. Meanwhile, sources in Kuwait Embassy said the two trucks that Kashem and the other abducted Sri Lankan driver were driving, are said to have belonged to the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army. Three to four US Army jeeps were escorting them when the convoy was ambushed, sources added. Bangladeshi Ambassador to Kuwait, Nazrul Islam Khan yesterday told a private TV channel here that he could not yet make any contact with the abductors. But he had met Kashem's employee and is working in conjunction with the Sri Lankan ambassador there to secure the release of the abducted truck drivers, he added. Jassem Transport and Stevedore Company has assured him of every possible assistance in having Kashem freed, sources said. Zahirul Haque, director general of foreign ministry's external publicity wing, yesterday said that the Senegalese Ambassador to Kuwait, who is the dean of the diplomatic corps there, had met Khan to express solidarity. He said, "It is a difficult task, as no contact can be established, unless they contact us." "We are still looking for clues to the abductors," he said. Kashem's brother Sabur has already made an appeal on an Arabic newspaper in Kuwait to the abductors to release Kashem.
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