More than 72 hours after his disappearance, police yesterday said they still had no information about the whereabouts of BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed.
A High Court bench Thursday asked law enforcers and the government to explain why they should not be directed to find Salahuddin and bring him before it on Sunday.
The BNP leader disappeared around 10pm Tuesday night when five or six people claiming to belong to the Detective Branch (DB) of Police picked him up from a house in Uttara, his family has said.
Police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have denied arresting Salahuddin, who faces a number of arson and blast cases.
But police said they now know whose flat the politician went missing from.
The flat’s tenant has been identified as Habib Hasnat, deputy managing director of First Security Bank.
Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Uttara West police station, said police were searching for Habib.
“We have contacted the bank’s top officials who told us that Habib is currently on leave,” Rafiq said.
The CCTV footage of the area has not helped the investigation.
A police official of Uttara West police station, asking not to be named, said the CCTV footage analysed by the detectives did not cover the building on Road 13/B, Sector 3 where Salahuddin was last known to be.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, in a press briefing yesterday, alleged that Salahuddin had been abducted because he was issuing statements and announcing programmes against the government.
The DMP commissioner’s spokesperson, DB Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam, said no agency had yet handed Salahuddin over to them. He said he had no information on the missing politician’s whereabouts.
In response to a question, he said law enforcers may arrest anyone on suspicion but according to the law, the arrestee must be placed before a court within 24 hours.
Several eyewitnesses alleged that they had seen four or five armed people entering the building in Uttara’s Sector 3 at the time Salahuddin was picked up. They said there were several vehicles parked outside the three-storey building.