Salah Uddin disappears

Bangladesh Nationalist Party joint secretary general Salah Uddin Ahmed disappeared on Tuesday night with the family alleging that he was picked up by joint forces from a house in the capital’s Uttara. His whereabouts remained unknown more than 24 hours after his going missing. The government, however, denied the allegations that Salah Uddin, also the BNP spokesperson, was picked up by law enforcers. The law enforcement agencies had reportedly been hunting for Salah Uddin since the arrest of Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, another joint secretary general of BNP, on January 31. Salah Uddin’s wife Hasina Ahmed quoting witnesses told New Age that her husband was ‘arrested’ by a ‘joint force’ at an apartment owned by one of their distant relatives at Uttara about 10:10pm on Tuesday. She said that six vehicles of law enforcers arrived at the place at Sector-3 after 9:00pm. Two of the six vehicles blocked on the road nearby to stop traffic and the rest four vehicles approached the building where he was staying. ‘They all were in plain clothes,’ she said, adding, ‘They showed the identity cards of DB [Detective Brach] at the entrance.’ Hasina Ahmed said that the plainclothesmen asked the guard not to speak up and went straight upstairs to the apartment and started kicking on the doors. ‘As they were kicking on the doors, he [Salah Uddin] called me about 10:08pm and tried to inform me about the incident. As the housemaid opened the door, they forced their way into the house, and disconnected the phone line,’ she said, adding, ‘I tried to reach him over phone immediately but failed.’ ‘They tied up the housemaid and handcuffed and blindfolded my husband before picking him up in a vehicle parked in front of the building located on road 13/B, house 49/A in Sector-3,’ said Hasina Ahmed quoting witnesses. She went to Gulshan police station on Wednesday night to file a general diary but the police advised her to go to the Uttara West police station. The Uttara West police station officer-in-charge Rafiqul Islam told New Age, ‘Had such incident taken place, I would have been informed. 

Can you give me the details of where and who it took place,’ he said. RAB spokesperson Commander Mufti Mahmud Khan told New Age, ‘We are unaware of any such incident. None of us has conducted any such raid.’ Asked whether Salah Uddin Ahmed was picked up by law enforcers, Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (media and public relations) Masudur Rahman also said, ‘None of us detained him.’ State ministry for home Asaduzzaman Khan said, ‘I am not aware of any such incident.’ In a statement signed by BNP’s standing committee member Nazrul Islam Khan, the party said that law enforcers, numbering 20-30, including RAB, police and DB, picked up Salah Uddin and two employees of the residence. ‘Since then, he has no communication with the family as well as with the party men,’ read the statement. Voicing concerns, the BNP said, ‘Salah Uddin Ahmed has not yet been produced before the court and even the law enforcers have not disclosed anything about his detention.’ Nazrul Islam Khan alleged that Salah Uddin had been arrested as he was announcing political programmes and issuing statements in favour of the BNP and the alliance. Demanding immediate release of Salah Uddin and two employees of the residence, the BNP urged the government to end ‘illegal and autocratic activities’ like detaining opposition leaders and activists ‘secretly’. Earlier on February 24, Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna was detained from his Gulshan residence but his whereabouts had remained unknown for about 20 hours after he was picked up by men in plain clothes identifying themselves as members of Detective Branch of police.

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