Kashem returned two weeks after the militants handed him over to a rights activists in Iraq, ending his 55-day confinement.

"I feel I am reborn," said Kashem as reporters surrounded him upon his landing at the Zia International Airport.

He expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan and all others for their efforts to get him released.

Bangladesh Ambassador to Kuwait Nazrul Islam Khan accompanied Kashem in a Bangladesh Biman flight.

Cameras flashed in when Kashem took and hugged his two-year-old daughter.

"I am very happy," told Kashem's wife to newsmen.

A large number of people assembled at the airport to greet him.

Kashem, working for a Kuwait company, was abducted on October 19 as he was driving with supplies for a US military camp in Iraq from Kuwait.

The 45-year old truck driver described his ordeal during the captivity.

"After about 15 days, we were taken to a nearby jungle where our abductors killed two Iraqis on charges of collaboration with the US troops," he said.

The guerillas took a softer attitude towards him 'for being a Muslim and national of friendly Bangladesh' and brought him back to the hideout with assurance of release.

Kashem said the guerillas asked him to convey a warning asking all Bangladeshis 'not to visit Iraq to help the occupation forces'.

The guerillas also gave him some money and winter clothes while handing him over to the rights activists, who arranged his immediate return to Kuwait and keeping in care of the Bangladesh mission.

Asked why he went to conflict-torn Iraq defying suggestions from the Bangladesh mission, he said the lure of money prompted him to take the risk.

Bangladesh ambassador Nazrul Islam Khan, who played an important role for his release, said he held talks with Kashem's employer who assured him of not sending Kashem to Iraq again.

Kashem stayed in Dhaka yesterday at a relative's house. He will go to his ancestral home in Feni today and stay there for some days before flying to Kuwait to join his job.