Nepalese 12 hostages fact news:
KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Nepal said Thursday it has asked the Iraqi government for help in seeking the release of 12 Nepalese workers being held captive by militants, after local television broadcast a videotape showing the hostages pleading for their lives.
The 12 hostages, who are being held by an Iraqi militant group, also said they want the Nepalese government to take action against the people who sent them to Iraq.
Their captors have made no specific demands.
Nepal's embassies in the Middle East were trying to find out if the men were safe, "Foreign Ministry Secretary Madhuraman Acharya" said Thursday, adding officials have written a letter to the Iraqi government requesting help.
Meanwhile, television stations in Nepal late Wednesday aired a video of the hostages, showing them being held at gunpoint.
Acharya said Al-Jazeera TV had handed the video to Nepalese officials. It wasn't clear when the tape was made.
Holding their passports with one hand, the men said their captors had threatened to kill them.
"We don't know when they will kill us ... it could be today or tomorrow we don't know,'' said one hostage, who identified himself as Budhan Kumar Shaha.
"We are asking our government and everyone to please help us.''
The hostages said they had been forced to go to Iraq by their employers and "Nepalese employment agents."
"Morning Star Company", a Jordan-based services firm, has said the 12 were its workers but said the company had not confirmed they were kidnapped.
It also has not said what it was doing to ensure their safe return.
"This could be our last meeting,'' said Prakash Adhikari, another hostage.
Nepal - an impoverished South Asian nation - has sent no troops to Iraq and bans its citizens from working in the war-ravaged country because of security concerns.
However, an estimated 200,000 Nepalese work elsewhere in the Gulf and around 17,000 are believed to have slipped into Iraq. - AP
Reference: Thestar.com
note: Foreign Ministry Secretary Madhuraman Acharya was working like "It will be alright.."
