Pro-BNP professionals accuse law enforcers of abduction

A group of pro-BNP professionals yesterday claimed that the state was trying to conceal the matter that law enforcers had picked up BNP Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed and were holding him.

"Salahuddin's family has evidence that law enforcers picked him up," Shawkat Mahmud, president of one Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists faction, told journalists when Bangladesh Peshajibi Parishad went to meet Salahuddin's wife at their Gulshan residence in the capital.

"Besides when the family went to file a general diary at the police station police did not accept it which proved that the government is involved in the incident," said Shawakat, also BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's adviser.

Salahuddin's wife Hasina Ahmed burst into tears, saying 20 days had passed with no information coming up, reiterating that law enforcers picked him up and demanding that he be returned unhurt.

Family members allege men flashing IDs of Detective Branch of police picked up Salahuddin from a house in Uttara on March 10.

Following a High Court order based on his wife's petition, five law enforcement agencies submitted reports to the attorney general's office on March 15 saying they had not arrested him.

On March 19, Hasina Ahmed through a memorandum sought the prime minister's intervention in tracing Salahuddin and seeking an audience with her.