Ten Nepali nationals, who were taken hostage last month in Bagram, Afghanistan, were brought to Kabul on Wednesday.

Acting on a request from the Nepal government, the Interior Ministry of Afghanistan and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) jointly launched the rescue effort and brought the hostages safely to Kabul, said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arjun Bahadur Thapa.

The Nepali mission in Islamabad, which also looks after Afghanistan, had been putting pressure on the Afghan officials to rescue the Nepali hostages from a guesthouse in Bagram. Those rescued have been identified as Lil Bahadur Kafle, Janak Dhakal, Binesh Tamang, Shiva Kumar Rai, Dhan Bahadur Gurung, Subas Chandra Rai, Rajendra Rai, Ramananda Rai, Jitendra Gurung and Sasan Thapa. The rescued are now safe in Kabul and currently with the IOM, said Thapa, adding that only three out of the ten have passports. "Our mission in Pakistan will issue one-way travel documents to the seven who do not have passports to get them back home.

The IOM will arrange for tickets to Kathmandu," said Thapa. All ten Nepalis reached Afghanistan a year ago to work as security guards, hired by three manpower agents based in Kathmandu, New Delhi and Kabul.

However, the agents absconded with seven of their passports and their work never materialised. They had paid at least Rs 400,000 each to get to Afghanistan via New Delhi, where they were promised a monthly salary of at least Rs 100,000 by the agents.

Published on: 5 July 2012 | The Kathmandu Post