Continue search for Salahuddin
The High Court yesterday ordered the police to continue searching for missing BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed and submit reports on their progress in this regard to the home ministry for the next six months or until he is recovered.
It asked the police to place reports on the progress of the search to the home secretary on the first day of every month for the next six months or until his recovery, whichever is earlier.
The HC bench of Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order after hearing a petition filed by Salahuddin's wife Hasina Ahmed.
During yesterday's hearing, Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ullah informed the HC that the government had formed a three-member committee headed by the joint commissioner of Criminal Investigation Department (crimes) to find out whether the BNP leader had been abducted or not.
After the HC delivered the judgment, DAG Bashir told The Daily Star that law enforcers would continue searching for the missing BNP leader if he was not recovered in next six months.
During the hearing, petitioner's counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain prayed to the HC to order the government to punish the law enforcers for their failure to find Salahuddin and to warn them so that incident of missing does not take place in future.
Salahuddin's wife Hasina Ahmed, who was present in the courtroom during its proceedings, told reporters that she wants her husband to come back alive.
“I don't want to know who picked up my husband and why he was picked up. I just want my husband back,” she said. She sought everyone's cooperation in this regard.
Following her petition, the HC on March 12 asked the government to explain as to why it should not be directed to produce Salahuddin before it by 10:30am on March 15.
The petitioner prayed to the HC to direct the government to produce her husband before it in 24 hours, saying law enforcers picked up her husband from a house at Uttara on the night of March 10.
Later, her lawyers urged the court to order to the government to form a commission to probe the incident of Salahuddin's missing and to locate his whereabouts.
In reply to the rule, offices of inspector general of police, director general of Rapid Action Battalion, Criminal Investigation Department, Special Branch of Police, and the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police submitted five reports to the HC through attorney general's office on March 15, saying Salauddin was not under their custody, as they did not detain him.
Meanwhile, several thousand people yesterday formed a 300km-long human chain in Cox's Bazar, demanding the “return” of BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed.
Organised by the Cox's Bazar district BNP, the human chain, formed for around half an hour, started at St Martin's Island around 11:00am and covered almost all villages, unions, upazilas, wards, roads, bazars, stations and mahallas in the district.
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