BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed’s wife Hasina Ahmed went to Kolkata in a 9:20pm Air India flight last night, just hours after she got visa.
Their family said Mahbubul Kabir Moonmoon, husband of Salahuddin’s sister, is accompanying Hasina.
“They will come to Shillong in the Indian state of Meghalaya today,” BNP leader Abdul Latif Jony, who is now in Shillong, told the Dhaka Tribune last night.
The Dhaka Tribune has learned that Tabith M Awal, the BNP-backed mayoral candidate in recently concluded Dhaka North City Corporation polls, has also gone to Shillong to meet Salahuddin.
Salahuddin, a joint secretary general of BNP, had been kept at the Undertrial Prisoner’s Cell at the Shillong Civil Hospital on charges of entering India without valid documents.
According to Indian media reports, local police have not produced him before court because he is still not fit enough. He might be brought to a court today or sometime later this week, if doctors give him the fitness clearance.
On Friday, Abdul Latif Jony, assistant office secretary of BNP, met Salahuddin for the second time at the Civil Hospital. Jony went to India a few days ago on business purposes and had travelled to Shillong to meet his senior party colleague.
He told Indian media on Friday that Salahuddin needs to go to Singapore – where he had been taking treatment for kidney and heart problems – as facilities are not good at Shillong.
“He seems to be weak and is not sleeping well due to heart and kidney problems,” the Shillong Times quoted Jony as saying.
The BNP functionary also said that he and his family members will approach the local authorities to discuss the possibilities of taking Salahuddin outside India for treatment.
They have also been in touch with some local lawyers for fighting the legal battle once Salahuddin in taken to court.
Meanwhile, Rajiv Mehta, director general of Meghalaya police, told the Times of India yesterday: “We will go strictly by law and produce him in court once the hospital issues his release order … He cannot be taken to Singapore just like that. The court will make the decision.”
Mehta also said that police would seek his custody to find out how he entered India or who brought him here without valid documents.
According to the DGP, police are yet to receive any direction from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for initiating any process for his extradition.
“If the court gives any such order, Salahuddin will be taken to the international border at Dawki and handed over to BSF officers, who in turn will ask Border Guards Bangladesh [BGB] to take him into their custody.”
Section 14 of the Foreigners’ Act of India, under which Salahuddin has been booked, provides imprisonment for up to five years. The Dhaka unit of the Interpol has also issued a red corner notice against the BNP leader, who is wanted in violence-related cases in Bangladesh.