In a tearful appeal for the return of her missing husband, Hasina Ahmed, the wife of BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed, repeated her claim that her husband had been picked up by law enforcement officials.
At a media briefing at the National Press Club yesterday, she said: “I have not had any word of my husband in the last 13 days, after law enforcement officials took him away. My family is sick with worry about his well-being and whereabouts.”
“I believe in God and I have faith that my husband will come back to me unharmed,” Hasina said.
Salahuddin was allegedly picked up on March 10 at a house in Uttara by several people who identified themselves as detectives. Until then, Salahuddin had been issuing press statements from a hideout on behalf of the BNP, following the arrest of another joint secretary general, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
Salahuddin left a government job to join the BNP and became a lawmaker from Cox’s Bazar. He served as a junior communication minister in a BNP government.
Salahuddin’s wife earlier sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention to trace her husband. The government denies that any of its agencies has taken Salahuddin into custody.
Last week, Hasina Ahmed filed a writ with the High Court to have her husband tracked down and returned. Law enforcement agencies told the court that Salahuddin had not been arrested. The High Court fixed April 8 for further hearing on the matter.
Meanwhile, a three-member police committee charged with finding Salahuddin had yet to take any action on the matter. Led by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Joint Commissioner (crime and operations) Meer Rezaul Alam, the committee had not even contacted the missing man’s family members during the last seven days.
The two other members of the committee are Iqbal Hossain, deputy commissioner of the DMP Uttara division, and Shaikh Nazmul Alam, a DB deputy commissioner.
None of the committee members were willing to discuss the case when approached by the Dhaka Tribune.
Gaibandha hoax
The Detective Branch (DB) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) yesterday arrested two people allegedly involved in spreading rumours that the missing BNP leader was in Gaibandha district.
The arrestees are Mokhlesur Rahman alias Uzzal, 34, of Jamalpur district, and Mohammad Alim Sikder alias Munir, 33, of Jhalakathi district, said the DB’s Additional Deputy Commissioner Tanvir Arafat.
On March 19, Uzzal, calling himself Siraj Master, phoned Uttara police station and said Salahuddin Ahmed had been seen at Khatiarmari Char in Gaibandha. He then tried to obtain Hasina Ahmed’s mobile telephone number.
Acting on a tip-off, a DB team nabbed Uzzal from Chittagong city’s Mistripara area around 2:30am; later, they nabbed Munir from Sitakunda upazila’s Bhatiari, the CMP Detective Branch additional deputy commissioner said.
In initial interrogation, the arrestees confessed to running an extortion racket involved in providing false information about missing people to distraught family members to induce them to pay money via bKash to get further information.