Salahuddin not under arrest: IGP

BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed's wife yesterday again sought the prime minister's intervention in tracing him while Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque reiterated that police had not arrested him.

"It has been 17 days...we did not get any support or information from law enforcers," said Hasina Ahmed during a visit by some pro-BNP lawyers led by Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon at her Gulshan residence.

She said she was yet to be granted an audience with the premier, to whom she submitted a memorandum on March 19 seeking the intervention.

Circumstances indicated that law enforcers had picked up Salahuddin, said Mahbub, adding that abductions had become a political culture during the present government.

Family members allege that men showing IDs of detectives picked up the joint secretary general from a house in the capital's Uttara on the night of March 10.

Asked by the High Court following a petition by his wife, five law enforcement agencies submitted reports to the attorney general's office on March 15 saying they did not arrest him.

Replying to journalists' queries after attending as chief guest a convention of Tangail's community police on the zila parishad premises, the IGP said, "If we had arrested him, we would have produced him before a court...we are trying all out to rescue him."

He said Salahuddin's family, apart from police, had responsibilities, in this case informing law enforcers in writing of him going "missing".

Salahuddin's wife earlier said she had gone to the Uttara (West) Police Station the day after the abduction but police refused accepting her general diary.