BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on Sunday renewed her demand for the safe return of her party’s joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed claiming that law enforcers picked him up from a house in the city’s Utta area barely two months ago, reports UNB.
In a statement, the BNP chief said, “I’m observing with deep concern that still there’s no trace of BNP’s one of the top leaders Salahuddin Ahmed though two months have elapsed since he was picked up by law enforcement agencies from a house in the capital’s Uttra area.”
She further said, “I’m again demanding Salauddin be freed immediately and returned to his family. I also demand the government ensure the citizens’ right to living and opportunity to get justice.”
Khaleda called upon the government to restore the rule of law and institutional rules and principles at all levels shunning its waywardness.
BNP and Salahuddin’s family members have been claiming that 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.
Khaleda said many leaders of BNP and its associate bodies, including ex-BNP MP Ilias Ali, ex-DCC councillor Chowdhury Alam, ex-BNP MP Saiful Islam Hiru, JCD ex-organising secretary Anisur Rahman Talukder Khokan and Sylhet JCD leader Iftekhar Ahmed Didar, were made disappeared during the two consecutive tenures of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “There’s been no trace of them since the law enforcers picked them up. It couldn’t be known what happened to their fate.”
She said the relatives of those subjected to enforced disappearance are anxiously waiting with a hope of getting back their near and dear ones.
Against this backdrop, Khaleda said, “We as well as family members of Salahuddin are very much concerned about his fate. Salahuddin’s wife, also a former BNP MP has repeatedly appealed to the Prime Minister to return her husband. But instead of taking any step, the Prime Minister made cruel mockery on her husband’s disappearance.”
Khaleda wondered how insecure the ordinary people when the government and the administration can remain silent after enforced disappearance of an important citizen like a former state minister and Salahuddin Ahmed.
Earlier on Saturday night, she claimed Salahuddin is in Rab custody and warned that the consequences will not be good if the elite force does not return him to his family unharmed.
“We’ve information it was Rab (Rapid Action Battalion) members who had picked Salahuddin up and he’s in their custody. I want to tell them that return Salahuddin to his family members or put him back right there from where you had picked him up,” Khaleda said while addressing a views-exchanging meeting with newly elected members of Dhaka Taxes Bar Association (DTBA) at her Gulshan office.
