Security forces say they have ‘no knowledge’ of BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed’s whereabouts.
The Special Branch, CID, RAB, DMP and police headquarters filed separate reports to the Attorney General’s office on Sunday in response to a court ruling.Family members allege plainclothesmen picked up the BNP leader from a house in Uttara on Mar 10 but security forces rejected the claim.
“In the reports, they said they could not find Salahuddin,” Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Md Bashir Ullah told journalists. The reports of the security forces were presented before the High Court by Attorney General Mahey Alam who demanded disposal of the HC rule issued on Thursday on the government.
Moudud Ahmed who appeared for the petitioner Hasina Begum wife of Salahuddin Ahmed said in involved a matter of huge importance, life of man, and should be heard in detail. The High Court Bench comprising Justices Gobinda Chandra Thakur and Quamrul Islam Siddique decided the hearing to be held on Monday.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Friday said the government had arrested Salahuddin but Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said the law enforcers were “still looking for him.”
Former Cox’s Bazar MP Salahuddin had served as an assistant personal secretary to Khaleda during her 1991-96 tenure when he was a junior civil servant.
His wife Hasina Ahmed, a former MP, moved the court last Thursday, seeking the whereabouts of her husband.
The court issued a ruling asking the government to reply within Sunday why it should not be ordered to find and produce Salahuddin before the court.
DAG Bashir said the law enforcers had been looking for the BNP leader even before the ruling was issued. “They are still searching,” he added.
Salahuddin Ahmed had been issuing statements on behalf of the Bnp and the 20-Party Alliance from an undisclosed location since early February when another joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi had been arrested from his hideout at a Baridhara House,
His wife alleged both the Gulshan and Uttara police stations had refused to register complaints over her husband’s disappearance.
The DAG said the police headquarters report explained the matter.
“She (Hasina) could not answer police queries about where her husband was picked up from and who saw it. She asked others over phone and replied to the questions,” the DAG added.
Hasina’s lawyer AB Mohammad Ali said the court would hold a hearing on its ruling in the afternoon. Salahuddin Ahmed has been reported picked up by law enforcers at about 11 pm on Tuesday last from a Uttara house where had been hiding and making announcement of programmes of movement of the Bnp and the 20-Party Alliance.
