Sylhet Bureau :
Nine years have passed since former BNP Central Organizing Secretary and Lawmaker of Sylhet-2 Constituency M Ilias Ali and his driver Ansar disappeared from the capital, but their families are still waiting anxiously for their return home.
Tahsina Rushdie Luna, wife of missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali, has been searching for her husband for nine years. However, he has not given up yet. Ilias Ali, the father of his three children, is hopeful that one day he will return home.
But Lunars trouble is with her children. Because they do not know whereabouts of their father. That is why the children of Ilias Ali cannot give any answer when their friends and classmates want to know about their father.
Every year on April 17, the day Ilyas Ali disappeared; programs were arranged by different organizations.
Ilias Ali, then organising secretary (Sylhet division) of BNP, and his driver Ansar went missing on the night of April 17, 2012. The party alleged that the government’s law enforcement agencies picked them up.
BNP had staged protests, including a countrywide hartal, over the “enforced disappearance” of the former lawmaker.
Ilias’ wife Tahmina Rushdir Luna on April 19, 2012 had filed a writ petition with the High Court claiming that law enforcers illegally kept her husband detained. She sought HC orders on them to produce her husband before it.
Following the writ petition, the HC issued a rule upon law enforcement agencies to explain within 10 days why they should not be directed to produce Ilias before it or prove that he was not detained by them.
The HC is yet to start holding hearing on the rule as neither the petitioner nor the state has taken any initiative in this regard and therefore, the matter remains unresolved.
However, five law enforcement agencies submitted reports to the HC claiming that Ilias was not in their custody since they did not pick up or detain him, said sources at the attorney general’s office.
The reports, prepared by the offices of the inspector general of police (IGP), Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Special Branch (SB) and Banani Police Station, claimed that they were making all kinds of efforts to find Ilias. Tahsina Rushdies Luna said, we still believe that one day Ilyas Ali will return. My children are small. They were still young when he was abducted. But now they are growing up without their father. My daughter is especially upset when her school friends want to know what her father does. What will he say because he doesn’t know anything. This has been a sad day for us for the last nine years, she said.
Nine years ago, he was abducted by government forces. But I have not found him yet. We met with the Prime Minister but did not get any cooperation. On the contrary, we have been humiliated. My house was attacked. We will always demand that Ilyas Ali return if the government leaves, he said. We also need to find out who is involved. Especially to future generations we will leave the demand. Hopefully someone will come to cooperate. They will find out who is involved. They will unravel the mystery.
After 9 years, the government has not taken any further action in this regard and the High Court has not taken any hearing in this regard. As a result, the issue is still unresolved. Speaking to Tahmina’s lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said he did not take any initiative to hold hearing on the HC rule considering that his client would not have a remedz as the law enforcement agencies told the court that they did not detain Ilias.
“If we take an initiative for holding hearing on the rule, law enforcers will tell the court that they have not detained Ilias Ali,” he said.
Khokon, also a joint secretary general of BNP and a former lawmaker, said family members of Ilias and Ansar have been waiting anxiously for their return home.
There are no programmes now from the BNP regarding this issue, he added.
