Wife seeks PM's intervention

The wife of BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, who has been “missing” since March 10, submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday, seeking her intervention to trace him.

Hasina Ahmed handed over the 3-page document to an office assistance of the Prime Minister's Office around 11:25am.

She was accompanied by one of Salahuddin's cousin and his wife.

“She [the PM] is also a mother, wife, like me; she can understand my mental situation and ask the law enforcers to produce my husband before people immediately,” Hasina Ahmed told reporters later.

The memorandum has also urged the PM to issue “special” guidelines (for the law enforcers) in a bid to trace the BNP joint secretary general.

“If my husband committed any crime or is accused in any case, he should be produced before the court without any delay for starting his proper trial,” Hasina Ahmed added in the memorandum.

On March 10, some 20 to 30 people detained Salahuddin from a house at Uttara in the capital, introducing themselves as law enforcers, especially as Detective Branch of police personnel, reads the document. 

Following a writ petition filed with the High Court, police headquarters, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Rab, Criminal Investigation Department and Special Branch of police submitted five separate reports to the court, claiming they neither arrested nor detained the BNP leader.

“Despite repeated attempts in the last nine days, [we] failed to know any whereabouts of Salahuddin. Even [we] did not get any satisfactory help from the law enforcers in this regard.”

Hasina Ahmed, also a former BNP lawmaker, asked for an appointment with the PM in the memorandum.

HT Imam, an adviser to the PM, yesterday told BBC Bangla service that it was the “big question” whether the BNP leader, who stands accused in several cases, went into hiding as police were looking for him.

He said it was certainly the state's duty to find out whether Salahuddin was missing or hiding himself (somewhere).

Meanwhile, Dhaka City BNP has announced that it would bring out processions at all thanas and wards in the capital tomorrow, demanding safe return of the party leader.

Mirza Abbas and Habib-un-Nabi Sohel, convener and member-secretary of the BNP unit, declared the programme in a statement yesterday.

PHONE CALL

Meanwhile, after a “tip-off from an unknown caller” that Salahuddin was in Char areas of Fulchhari upazila in Gaibandha, police last night conducted a drive but could not find the BNP leader. 

Around 12:30am today, Ashraful Islam, Gaibandha superintendent of police, told The Daily Star that they searched the areas after the deputy commissioner in Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Uttara division) had told them about “the phone call from an unidentified person.”

Fulchhari UNO Mustafizur Rahman, who was with the police team during the drive, said it continued for about four hours from around 8:30pm.  

The Daily Star could not be sure who received the phone call of the unknown person. According to police sources, it was a senior official of Uttara division DMP. However, there was official confirmation about this last night.  

"It has been found that the phone call was made from Chittagong area," the Gaibandha SP said, suspecting that it was only to create confusion. The number was later found switched off, he added.

Around 10:30pm yesterday, Salahuddin's wife told The Daily Star said they learnt about the tip-off from media reports and the BNP sources. "But nobody confirmed that Salahuddin was in Gaibandha."