BNP behind Salahuddin’s disappearance: PM

BNP has orchestrated the ‘disappearance’ of its Joint Secretary General Salahuddin Ahmed, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said.

She has also said police are looking for the BNP leader and they would arrest him whenever they find him.

“Khaleda Zia will have to answer about his (Salahuddin’s) whereabouts,” she said while speaking at an event in Dhakaon Saturday.

“He has moved deep into underground and been issuing statements from there,” she added.

“Police are looking for him. He will be arrested once found,” she went on to saying.

Ahmed's family claimed plainclothesmen had picked him up from a house in Uttara last week but both police and RAB denied arresting or detaining him.

File Photo

BNP chief Khaleda Zia on Friday alleged the government had arrested BNP leader Salahuddin.

Sheikh Hasina on Saturday said the ‘missing’ BNP leader was in Khaleda’s office at Gulshan to be at her side after her son Arafat Rahman Coco’s death on Jan 24.

The prime minister had been turned away from the gate of Khaleda's office at that time.

Khaleda has been staying in the office since Jan 3 when police barred her to leave amid tension over BNP's protest plans on Jan 5.

“When I went there, I knew Salahuddin was there,” Hasina said.

Referring to a cleansing operation at the office, the prime minister said, “Who knows if he was driven out with junks.”

“Khaleda will have to answer it,” she said again.

After the ‘disappearance’ of Salahuddin, BNP issued a statement undersigned by another Joint Secretary General Barkatullah Bulu extending a shutdown on Saturday.

Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque in another programme said police were ‘seriously’ looking for the BNP leader as he was accused in several cases.

“Police haven’t arrested him,” he said.