Five Bangladeshi workers abducted in Afghanistan late last year returned home Sunday after their release from captivity last week.

They told a crowd of well-wishers and tearful family members they nearly starved and were kept shackled at night.

One of the freed workers, Mahbub Ali, told reporters at the airport in Dhaka they were not physically tortured, but the places they were kept in were “horrific.”

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni greeted the men as they got off the plane. She has said she does not know if a ransom was paid for their release following negotiations between their captors and Afghan tribal elders.

Seven Bangladeshis working for a South Korean construction company were kidnapped in December of 2010 when assailants attacked a workers' camp near the capital of northern Balkh province, Mazar-e-Sharif. Another Bangladeshi was killed in the attack and two of the abducted were released within days.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.