Bangladeshi killed in Taliban attack

BANGLADESH NEWS

An official of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (Brac) was killed in a militant attack in the western province of Ghor in Afghanistan on Thursday.

Mohiuddin was killed when the Taliban stormed the Brac office in Chaghcharan, the provincial capital, just before dawn, acting police chief, Col Murtaza Musleh, told Pajhwok Afghan News.

Another Bangladeshi managed to flee the scene, he said, adding a wounded attacker was arrested after the incident.

The detainee told police five insurgents, involved in the attack, wanted to kidnap the Bangladeshis.

The militants sought to swap the foreigners for their detained associates, according to escapee, Samiul Haq, who said: "The office head was killed on the spot, but I succeeded in fleeing soon after the assailants entered the building."

He added an Afghan worker of the organisation, who was sharing the room with the office head, escaped unhurt in the assault. The office is situated about 500 metres from a guesthouse of the intelligence department.

Meanwhile, a Brac team had been sent to Ghor from Kabul to evacuate its staffers, an official of the development organisation in Dhaka told  Friday afternoon.

Mohiuddin had been working in the community-based livelihood improvement project of Brac in Ghor since 2009, the non-government organisation says in a press release.

Brac served millions of poor people with a focus on ensuring women empowerment in the country by carrying out development projects in Afghanistan since 2002, the release adds.