Police claimed to have rescued seven people, who were allegedly abducted for ‘ransom’ while collecting wood at Jahajpura hill in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar, on Friday evening.

Officer-in-Charge (Investigation) Nashir Uddin of Teknaf Police Station said police rescued them from a forest near Jahajpura village of Teknaf around 6pm.

He said a group of armed men comprising 15 to 20 abducted nine people from the forest on March 16. Later, they released two persons named– Mohammad Amir, 11, and Rifat Ullah, 12.

He said they used teach surveillance to track the hide out of the miscreants and multiple police teams in association with the locals started the rescue operations at various places in the hills on Friday evening.

Sensing the presence of the law enforcers the kidnappers left the seven people abandoned.

The seven people who were rescued are— Ghiyas Uddin, 17, Fazal Karim, 38, Jaberul Islam, 35, Arif Ullah, 22, Mohammad Rashid, 28, Mohammad Zafar, 38, and Mohammad Zainul, 45. All of them are residents of Jahajpura village.

Among the rescued, one was a college student and it is not clear why he went to the hill for collecting woods. There are many questions that have to be solved, he said, adding that they are interrogating the rescued persons.

It is to be mentioned here that, 41 people were abducted in Teknaf hills in the last six months. Among them, 17 were Rohingyas and 24 local residents.

Twenty-two people reportedly returned after paying ransom.

An auto-rickshaw driver named Mohammad Hosen was found dead on a road in that area on January 21.