THE mystery over the reported abduction of BNP joint secretary general and party’s spokesperson Salahuddin Ahmed remained unresolved even four days after the incident occurred on Tuesday night. Although the family sources and locals who witnessed the abduction said four to five plainclothes detectives entered the building at Uttara-3, whisked him into a vehicle parked on the spot and drove away, police and RAB denied the claim. They said their men were not involved but they are searching his whereabouts. Meanwhile, we know, a Bench of High Court has issued a notice on the government to produce Salahuddin before the Division Bench of the Supreme Court on Sunday after a writ filed by his wife seeking court intervention to find him out.
We see, the anxiety over the abduction has further heightened when police said the CCTV camera installed in the area did not cover the building Salahuddin was abducted from. Many of the important BNP leaders are in jail including the Secretary General incharge, many other are hiding to avoid arrest. Such a situation reflects on the government’s intolerance to political opposition. It also reveals the government’s lack of courage to face the opposition politically.
We know the present government under no circumstances will accept the opposition’s demand for a credible election. The persons in power also do not care that by not agreeing to free election it is proving its own unacceptability to the people.
But that should not mean that the government will help to spread panic in public life. All of us have to live now in the threat of being kidnapped. The existence of persons who can capture anybody and keep them untraced defying government’s authority must be stopped for the government’s own image. The government should know that such abduction is a challenge to the government about safety and security of the citizens.
The government is under the Supreme Court’s direction to produce him. We have been saying it again and again that the government must win confidence and not act like miscreants. It helps the armed miscreants.
