Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday reiterated her demand for the return of her party’s ‘disappeared’ joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed.
‘Return Salah Uddin Ahmed to his family or produce him before court immediately, or else, the government has to face dire consequences’, Khaleda said in a press statement.
BNP spokesman Salah Uddin was allegedly picked up by plain-clothes detectives in Dhaka on March 10.
Khaleda said the government could in no way of deny responsibility for Salah Uddin’s arrest as law enforcers talked to local youths and security men of the house, before and after his arrest.
The former prime minister urged political activists, rights organisations, different social forces, and citizens, to raise their voice about the incident, adding ‘no one is safe and anyone might become a victim of disappearance and killing’.
‘Turning law enforcement agencies into the Gestapo, to stay in power, cannot be tolerated,’ she said.
Referring to the disappearances of BNP leaders Ilias Ali, former MP from Laksham, Saiful Islam Hiru, commissioner of Dhaka city, Chowdhury Alam, and Laksham municipality BNP president Humayun Kabir Parvez, Khaleda said ‘disappearance after arrest’ of BNP-led alliance leaders is a regular phenomenon during the Awami League regime.
Meanwhile, Hasina Ahmed, wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, again sought the Prime Minister’s intervention in getting back her husband unharmed, reported United News of Bangladesh.
‘My husband has remained without trace for 12 days after law enforcers picked him up. My children have been anxiously waiting to hear good news. They want to know from me when they’ll get back their father,’ she said at the press conference held under the banner of a pro-BNP platform, Nagorik Samaj, at the National Press Club in the capital.
She expressed her firm belief in getting back her husband alive.
Prof Sukomal Barua of Dhaka University read out a written statement at the press conference expressing the Nagorik Samaj’s concern over the disappearance of Salah Uddin and ‘growing incidents of killing, enforced disappearance and mass arrest’.
BNP and Salah Uddin’s family have been claiming law enforcers picked him up from a house at Uttara on the night of March 10, an allegation denied by the law enforcers and the government.
Earlier on Thursday, Hasina Ahmed submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office in the capital’s Tejgaon seeking her intervention in tracing her missing husband.
In Chittagong, detectives arrested two people from Sitakunda upazila and the city Saturday night for ‘spreading a rumour’ that missing Salah Uddin had been traced in a remote Gaibandha char, according to UNB.
The arrested are Mokhlesur Rahman Ujjal, 28, of Jamalpur, and Mohammad Alim alias Prokash Monir, 27, of Jhalakati.
Acting on a tip-off, a DB police team launched a drive at Mistripara under Doublemooring Police Station in the city at night and arrested Ujjal, confirmed Tanvir Arafat, additional deputy commissioner (Detective Branch) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police.
Later, the same team arrested Monir from his cloth store in Bhatiari area of Sitakunda upazila the same night, he said.
Earlier, Salah Uddin’s wife filed a writ with the High Court seeking its order to rescue her husband.
Responding to the writ petition, the High Court on March 12 issued a rule asking the government to explain why directions should not be given to find Salah Uddin Ahmed and bring him before it.
In response to the rule, the law enforcement agencies told the court they did not arrest Salah Uddin and could not find him.
The HC fixed April 8 for the next hearing on the writ.
Source: New Age