At least assure he's safe

With still no trace of BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed, his sons and daughters want assurance from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that their father is at least safe, wherever he might be. 

“With every minute passing, the pain is getting more and more unbearable. We are yet to know any information about his whereabouts. My four sons and daughters are begging to the prime minister -- they just want to be assured that their father is unhurt and safe, wherever he is,” Salahuddin's wife Hasina Ahmed told The Daily Star at her Gulshan residence yesterday morning.

Salahuddin, a joint secretary general of BNP, was picked up by plainclothes officials from a house in Uttara on March 10, according to the family.

“If Salahuddin is arrested on any charge, please make sure that he is produced before a court,” she called upon the PM.

Also a former BNP lawmaker from Cox's Bazar, Hasina Ahmed expressed her frustration over the role of law enforcement agencies as they failed to provide clues to his whereabouts. She also alleged the agencies were not co-operating her to find out her husband.

“Little does the government realise what we are passing through. We can hardly eat or sleep,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “We have reasons to think that the government is not properly handling the matter.”

Later in the evening, she along with her two kids met BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia at the latter's Gulshan office.

Khaleda expressed sympathy to the family and called upon the government to “give back” the BNP leader or produce him before a court immediately if he was arrested in any case, Salahuddin's wife told journalists after the meet.

“It is the law enforcement agencies that have picked up Salahuddin. So the government has to give him back to his family or produce him before a court right away,” Hasina quoted the BNP chief as saying.

Meanwhile, the BNP-led 20-party alliance yesterday extended its ongoing countrywide hartal till 6:00am Friday demanding the government trace Salahuddin and return him to the family.

“We have repeatedly demanded that Salahuddin be produced before the court, if arrested,” Barkat Ullah Bulu, another joint secretary general of BNP, said in a statement. “It is unacceptable that an important political leader would vanish without a trace.”

Talking to the BBC Bangla yesterday, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said Salahuddin had already in hiding when it was alleged that he was picked up.  “He is not in our custody. We too are trying to know what exactly happened to him.”

BNP Vice-Chairman Selima Rahman, on the other, told the BBC they feared whether Salahuddin was still alive.