Staff Reporter :
The High Court (HC) on Thursday issued a rule upon the government to explain as to why it should not be directed to produce BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed in the court by Sunday.
The bench comprising Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore issued the rule after hearing on a writ petition filed by Salahuddin Ahmed’s wife Hasina Ahmed.
In the rule, the HC also asked the Home Secretary, Inspector General of Police, Director General of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), chiefs of Special Branch and CID, DMP Commissioner and OC of Uttara Police Station to give reply.
Salahuddin Ahmed, the Joint-Secretary General of BNP, was allegedly picked up by the law enforcers from a house at Uttara on Tuesday night but he was not produced in the court. The law enforcement agencies also denied picking up Salahuddin, which caused anxiety about his whereabouts.
Hasina, an Ex. MP, filed the writ petition with the HC seeking its directive upon the government to produce her husband in the court within 24 hours.
In the petition, she alleged that the law enforcers arrested Salahuddin from a house in Uttara Sector-3 at around 10:15 PM on Tuesday. But they did not produce the BNP leader in any court even after 24 hours of his arrest.
She also expressed her apprehension that the law enforcers might have taken him to an unknown place instead of any police station.
Hasina claimed that she went to Gulshan Police Station to file a General Diary (GD), but Police did not accept her complaint. Then, she rushed to Uttara Police Station and faced the same fate.
President of Supreme Court Bar Association Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain appeared for Hasina, while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the State during the hearing.
According to BNP sources, Salahuddin Ahmed was staying at one of his distant relative’s house in Uttara. In the night of Tuesday, a group of armed people, numbering 20-25, took away him from that house and since then he remained traceless.
BNP in a statement claimed that a joint team of Police, DB and RAB picked up Salahuddin with two other persons. But none of them confessed the arrest of Salahuddin.
Salahuddin has been discharging the duties of the party spokesman since the arrest of other Joint-Secretary General of BNP Rizvi Ahmed on January 31. He has been giving statements and the announcements of the programmes of BNP-led 20-party alliance from undisclosed place.
