Staff Reporter :
BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia has again demanded the rescue of her party’s Joint-Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed and other missing BNP leaders, including the party’s organiing secretary M Elias Ali and former Ward Councillor Chowdhury Alam.
She made the demand in a statement issued on Sunday. Signed by BNP’s International Affairs Secretary Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon, Khaleda Zia in the statement expressed deep concern over the fate of Salahuddin and other party leaders.
“Two months are going to elapse since the abduction of Salahuddin. The law enforcement agencies are yet to find out him in spite of High Court directives. In this situation, anxiety of Salahuddin’s family and ours is intensifying day by day. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) picked up him from a residence in city’s Uttara,” Khaleda Zia said.
She asked the government to return Salahuddin immediately to his family members. She warned of dire consequences if anything happens to the BNP leader. “His wife has repeatedly appealed to the prime minister to give back her husband. But instead of taking any measure, the PM made some unwanted remarks about missing of the BNP leader,” she said.
Where is the security of common people if the government and state organs remain silent regarding the missing of a BNP leader like Salahuddin, a former state minister? Khaleda questioned.
The statement also quoted the names of former BNP MP Saiful Islam Hiru, former organising secretary of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) Anisur Rahman Khokon and Sylhet JCD leader Iftekhar Ahmed Dinar who were subjected to enforced disappearance in the two tenures of Sheikh Hasina’s government since 2009. “It could not be known what has happened to them since their disappearance,” the statement said.
Khaleda Zia said that the relatives of the missing BNP leaders are still waiting for their relatives. They don’t know whether they were murdered. They did not even see their dead bodies if they were actually subjected to murder. Their relatives could not even know the dates of demise and did not get opportunity of offering prayers.
