No good news for BNP leader Ilias Ali’s family

Tahsina Rushdir Luna had consciously been avoiding journalists for quite a while. She had even stopped talking to people yearning to know about her husband Ilias Ali, a BNP leader who had gone missing three years ago on this very day.

In 2012, she had run to the prime minister, journalists, rights activists and law enforcers for any news of her husband, who along with his driver Ansar Ali went missing from the capital's Banani.

None could help her. They gave her the same depressing and disheartening words that added to the distress of the already grief-stricken family which had been keeping the agony buried deep inside.

"None says anything positive about him. Only negative words ... there is no assurance from anyone whatsoever. We can't bear it anymore," Luna told The Daily Star after repeated attempts over several months to reach her.

Luna, mother of three children, has not given up hope even though three years have gone by. She believes that her husband is alive and will return home one day.

"We are counting days with the hope that he is alive," was her last words during the five-minute conversation over the phone.

Ilias, organising secretary of BNP's Sylhet Division and former lawmaker, was born on January 1, 1961, at Ramdhana of Bishwanath in Sylhet. He came under the spotlight when he was a student of Dhaka University during HM Ershad's regime.

He was elected the general secretary of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, a pro-BNP student body, during the BNP rule after the Ershad regime fell.

The Chhatra Dal committee was dissolved within a few months after its pro-Ilias faction evicted Ovee-Niru group from DU campus following several murders that rocked the university.

Ilias was also sent to jail.

In 2001, he was elected a member of parliament from Sylhet-2 constituency. He was very vocal against the Tipaimukh Dam construction and border killings.

Eight people, including three at his hometown, died and scores more were injured on April 23, 2012 during a countrywide hartal enforced by BNP protesting his disappearance.

Soon after the disappearance, Luna filed a general diary with Banani Police Station. Three investigators were appointed to probe the incident but no progress was made.

Police had recovered his abandoned car near his Banani home and found his driver's mobile phone on the passenger seat on April 17, 2012, the day of their disappearance.

Inspector (investigation) Kazi Mainul Islam of Banani Police Station had begun the probe and after his transfer, his successors Nasir Uddin and Ashraful Islam continued with the investigation.

None of them could come up with any clue, insiders said.

Talking to The Daily Star, Officer-in-Charge Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan of Banani Police Station admitted that there was no notable headway made.

They were continuing with the investigation and had employed a number of informers, he said, adding that they had submitted progress reports to the court every month since the disappearance.

BNP chief Khaleda Zia had alleged that a government agency and Rab had picked up Ilias from his car.

Both the government high-ups and Rab outright rejected her claim.