Indian police say they arrested Salahuddin Ahmed in Shillong on Monday

Indian police say they have arrested a man by the name of Salahuddin Ahmed in Meghalaya, hours after the family claimed the ‘missing’ BNP leader’s was ‘found’ there.

Meghalaya police said they detained the Bangladesh national, aged about 54, from Golf Links in capital Shillong on Monday.

They said Salahuddin was hospitalised and investigations were on as this appeared to be a case of illegal trespass into Indian territory without valid travel documents.

Shillong City police SP Vivek Syiem said Salahuddin had told them that he was from Bangladesh but failed to produce travel documents when asked.

He was taken to the police station.

“But he appeared very stressed and his behaviour was not normal,” Syiem told bdnews24.com's India correspondent. “So we decided to take him to the MIMNHANS Hospital.”

He was shifted to Shillong Civil Hospital after doctors at the Meghalaya Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (MIMHANS) Hospital said he was mentally stable.

Syiem said they had no information on Salahuddin apart from what he had told them.

“We’ll question him once doctors discharge him,” he added.

BNP leader Salahuddin’s wife Hasina Ahmed told reporters in Dhaka that she received a phone call from her husband on Tuesday, who went ‘missing’ on Mar 10.

“My husband told me that he is alright and we are trying to reach him as soon as possible. We seek cooperation from all,” she told the media at her Gulshan home.

The BNP joint secretary general is at the MIMHANS Hospital in Shillong, according to wife Hasina.

The family had alleged that Salahuddin was picked up by detective police personnel from a house at Uttara on the night of Mar 10.

Hasina Ahmed had said then that the BNP leader had called her over phone just before he had gone missing.

She further complained that the Uttara and Gulshan police stations had refused to accept their complaints before moving the High Court, seeking whereabouts of her husband.

But the law enforcers told the court that he was not arrested.

On Apr 12, the High Court instructed authorities to carry on search for Salahuddin and to file a report every month on its progress for the next six months.

The BNP had also backed the family’s allegations, saying that Salahuddin was nabbed on ‘government’s instructions’.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said then that the BNP leader was not arrested, but was being sought by the security forces.

She also hinted that the BNP had orchestrated his ‘disappearance’.

Salahuddin’s wife sought the prime minister’s intervention to trace her husband and went to the PMO twice on Mar 19 and Apr 7 to hand over memorandums.

She also sought an appointment with the prime minister.

On Tuesday, media reports, citing several BNP leaders, said Salahuddin Ahmed was traced in the Indian state of Meghalaya.

Around 11:40am, Salahuddin’s wife went to BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s residence.

Two hours after emerging from there, she said her husband was traced.

Former Cox’s Bazar MP and state minister Salahuddin had served as an assistant private secretary to Khaleda during her 1991-96 tenure when he was a junior civil servant.

Hasina Ahmed is also a former MP.

The BNP joint secretary general was functioning as party’s spokesperson after the arrests of acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Ahmed Rizvi.

Statements signed by Ahmed, from an undisclosed location, were being circulated to the media until Mar 10, when he ‘disappeared’.