Ex-BNP leader Asif ran off from by-election 'to escape pressure'

The Brahmanbaria-2 seat candidate did not clarify what sort of pressure he was feeling

Brahmanbaria Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 2 Feb 2023, 10:04 AM
Updated : 2 Feb 2023, 10:04 AM

Former BNP leader Abu Asif Ahmed, who ran for the Brahmanbaria-2 seat as an independent candidate, has said the by-polls put him under the pump causing him to make himself scarce for six days.

Asif returned to his home at Shariatnagar in Ashuganj around 5 pm on Thursday after police traced him at his Dhaka home in Bashundhara earlier in the day.

“I was strained as the election came closer, so I left because I won’t be able to live under such pressure. Now the election is over and I’m back home. No one threatened me.”

But he did not speak about where he had gone or clarify what the pressure was all about.

The Brahmanbaria-2 constituency by-polls were held on Wednesday and were contested between Asif and another former BNP leader-turned-independent candidate Abdus Sattar Bhuiyan.

But Asif’s wife Meherun Nisa reported him missing five days before the voting. Following his return, Meherun Nisa said Asif was “fearing for his life” three days before disappearing and was thinking about moving away until the election.

“He was so frustrated while going away that he left his phone behind and is still wearing the clothes he had on then. He is ill now due to mental pressure.”

Meherun Nisa had earlier filed a general diary with the police who called her back on Thursday noon to investigate. She then told them that he was in Bashundhara and was planning to return to Ashuganj on his own, said Brahmanbaria Superintendent of Police Md Shakhawat Hossain.

“As he returned home by himself, police no longer need to question him,” he said

On Wednesday, Abdus Sattar won the by-polls claiming 44,916 votes to Asif’s 3,269.