Entered India not by choice

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, who has been in India since May last year, has claimed that he didn't go to the neighbouring country by choice.

"I didn't come to India by choice. Everybody knows it," BBC Bangla Service last night quoted him as saying.

He said he went through terrible experiences "in confinement in Bangladesh" for two months.

Around two months after going missing in Dhaka city, Salahuddin was found in Shillong, the capital of north-eastern Indian state of Meghalaya.

On May 12 last year, Shillong police spotted him loitering in Golf Link area of the tourist city. As he could not produce any travel documents and also appeared to be "mentally unbalanced", law enforcers arrested him for trespassing and admitted him to a mental hospital.

It still remains a mystery how and when the BNP joint secretary general landed in Shillong after he was allegedly picked up by plainclothes law enforcers from a house in Dhaka's Uttara area on March 10.

Salahuddin told the BBC that he was abducted from Bangladesh and his abductors left him in Indian territory, with his hands and legs tied and eyes blindfolded.

But he didn't clarify who were the kidnappers. "I was in their custody for two months. What more can I say about this?"

He is now facing a case for trespassing into India. He said he would try to make the court understand that he didn't enter India by choice.

The BNP leader said he has been receiving treatment in India for last one year.