Army-led security forces in Bangladesh Sunday rescued a Western aid agency official from captivity in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast of the country bordering Myanmar, officials said. Sources said Hossain Shahid Sumon, a Bangladeshi working for DANIDA (Danish International Development Agency), was found abandoned in a jungle hideout, bringing to a close a fortnight-long search and rescue operation by combined forces, according to dpa. Sumon's Bangladeshi driver Mohammad Hanif was also abducted by suspected anti-Myanmar rebels from the remote and tiny town of Thanchi on June 25. Hanif had been freed three days afterwards. The abductors did not demand any ransom nor set any precondition for the release of the hostage. Rescuers used air force helicopters to scan the malaria-infested lush foothills of Bandarban district located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region about 350 kilometres southeast of Dhaka. At least one suspected abductor was killed in a shootout between security forces and alleged terrorists on July 6. The authorities have arrested three persons for their involvement in the abduction.
