Allow Ilias Ali's wife to go abroad

The High Court yesterday ordered the authorities concerned to allow missing BNP leader M Ilias Ali's wife to go to the UK to attend her son's graduation ceremony.

The court also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain in four weeks why the immigration officer's action barring Ilias Ali's wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna from going abroad should not be declared illegal.

The bench of Justice Tariq ul Hakim and Justice Md Faruque came up with the order and rule after hearing a writ petition filed by Tahsina challenging legality of the obstruction put on her.

Her lawyer Advocate Sagir Hossain Leon told The Daily Star that his client was scheduled to go to London with her two other children on a Biman Bangladesh flight on Sunday, but the immigration officers at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport obstructed her without any reason.

The constitution of the country guarantees free movement of its citizens, he said citing from the petition.

Earlier on Sunday, Tahsina was stopped by the immigration police when she went to the airport.

Tahsina, who is a deputy registrar at Dhaka University, told The Daily Star that she went to the airport with all necessary documents.

"I got my boarding pass and was scheduled to leave Dhaka on a flight of Bangladesh Biman at 10:00pm.But the police stopped me at the immigration point." They kept her waiting for one and a half hours and finally informed her that she was not allowed to fly on ground of “state security,” she added.

"I asked them to give me the reason in writing, but they did not provide it although there was no criminal case or allegation against me," she said.

BNP Organising Secretary Ilias Ali, also a former lawmaker from Sylhet, along with his driver, went missing from the capital's Banani area around midnight on April 17, 2012.

His party claims the government agencies had a hand behind his disappearance.