Staff Reporter :In a dramatic development, the ‘missing’ Joint Secretary General of Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] Salahuddin Ahmed has been traced at a mental hospital in Shillong, the capital city of the Indian state of Meghalaya.The whereabouts of the BNP leader was known on Tuesday afternoon after long 63 days he went missing [on March 10].Hasina Ahmed, wife of Salahuddin Ahmed, said her husband has been receiving treatment at Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences [MIMHNS].”The authorities of MIMHNS phoned me today [Tuesday]. They said that my husband wants to talk with me. Later, I talked with Salahuddin Ahmed,” she said in a press conference at 3:00pm at her Gulshan residence in the city.Explaining the condition of her husband, she said, “My husband is alive. Insahallah, he is well. Now he is in the hospital. His physical condition is stable now. I talked to him over phone around two hours ago. He said that he is alive and well.” Replying to a question, she said, “I’ve recalled Salahuddin’s voice through phone. I can recall it [the voice] even after 100 years. Salahuddin sought ‘Doa’ from all.” “We are taking preparation to go to India as soon as possible. I am seeking cooperation from the government so that I can reach there as soon as possible,” said Hasina.Earlier at around 11:40am, Salahuddin’s wife went to BNP Chief Khaleda Zia’s residence. Two hours after emerging from there, she said her husband was traced. “He has been found. I will brief you later,” she told reporters outside Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence.Echoing the same, BNP chairperson’s media wing officer Shamsuddin Didar said that Salahuddin Ahmed has been traced.In the meanwhile, Salahuddin Ahmed said that he had been kidnapped from Uttara in the capital.”Yes, I am Salahuddin Ahmed, a BNP leader. I was kidnapped by a group of unidentified people from Uttara and I don’t know how I landed in this place (Shillong),” Ahmed told media before he was admitted to the under-trial prisoner cell at the Shillong Civil Hospital.”I can’t remember anything after I was abducted,” he added.The Meghalaya Police on Tuesday said that they arrested one Bangladesh national named Salahuddin Ahmed, aged about 54, from Golf Links in capital Shillong late on Monday. He was wandering in the street at that time of night. They said Salahuddin was hospitalized, and investigations were on as this appeared to be a case of illegal trespass into Indian territory without valid travel documents. According to The Notheast Today, when asked about his identity soon after coming out of MIMHANS on Tuesday, the patient identified himself as Salahuddin Ahmed, a BNP leader. However, when asked how he arrived at Shillong, he replied, “I do not know.”Meghalaya police, however, are yet to ascertain the identity of Ahmed stating that interrogation is yet to be conducted since he is not keeping well. “We were supposed to produce him in court but due to his ill health, the process is delayed,” Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills Superintendent of Police, M. Kharkrang said adding that Ahmed is currently being shifted to Shillong Civil Hospital for better treatment, The Notheast Today also reported.Shillong Times, a local daily, also reported that Salahuddin was mentally fit but he got a heart problem. He may be shifted to a heart hospital. But Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pankaj Saran told newsmen yesterday that they have no information about Salahuddin. “However, we will look after the matter,” he said. On May 3, Hasina Ahmed sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention to get her husband back safely. She also submitted memorandums twice on March 19 and April 7 to the Prime Minister’s office seeking Sheikh Hasina’s directives to the law enforcers to return her husband. After his disappearance, the family had alleged that Salahuddin Ahmed was picked up by the detective police personnel from a house at Uttara on the night of March 10. Hasina Ahmed had said then that Salahuddin had called her over phone just before he had gone missing. She also complained that the Uttara and Gulshan police stations had refused to accept their complaints before moving the High Court, seeking whereabouts of her husband. But the law enforcers told the court that he was not arrested. On April 12, the High Court instructed authorities to carry on search for Salahuddin and to file a report every month on its progress for the next six months. A former Cox’s Bazar MP and state minister for communications Salahuddin Ahmed had served as an assistant private secretary to Khaleda Zia during her 1991-96 tenure when he was a junior civil servant.Salahuddin was functioning as party’s spokesperson after the arrests of acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Ahmed Rizvi. Statements signed by Salahuddin, from an undisclosed location, were being circulated to the media until March 10, during the movement of BNP.
