Seven Bangladeshi hostages return home

, June 12: Seven sailors freed by Somali pirates, returned to Bangladesh on Thursday, nearly four years after their abduction.

They landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka around 8:40 a.m., Xinhua reported.

The seven Bangladeshi sailors with four others from India, Iran and Sri Lanka were freed June 6.

The 11 men were part of the crew on Malaysian-owned cargo vessel MV Albedo, which was hijacked 1,500 km off Somalia in November 2010, while sailing from the UAE to Kenya.

Senior government officials received them at the airport.

The men, who had been held in dire conditions, were brutally beaten and tortured.

IANS