Family's wait gets longer

Missing BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed's wife, who moved the High Court last week for its directives on the government to trace her husband, will have to wait for more than three weeks for the court's decision. 

The development came as the court yesterday adjourned till April 8 the hearing of the rule it had earlier issued in response to Hasina Ahmed's petition. 

The court passed the adjournment order saying it will go on annual vacation from today and will reopen on April 1.

Salahuddin's family alleged some plainclothes men showed identity cards of the Detective Branch of police and picked up the BNP joint secretary general from a house in the capital's Uttara on the night of March 10.

Two days later, Hasina filed the petition before the HC. In response, the HC on the same day asked the government to explain why it should not be ordered to produce Salauddin before the court by 10:30am on March 15.

But on that day, the law enforcement agencies told the court through the attorney general that they did not detain Salahuddin.  

Upon an appeal by Hasina's lawyers, the HC had adjourned the hearing till yesterday.

As the court resumed hearing yesterday, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam read out from the reports submitted by five law enforcement agencies saying they were trying to find out the BNP leader.

The HC bench of Justice Quamrul Islam Siddique and Justice Gabinda Chandra Tagore did not pass any order other than adjourning the hearing yesterday, since the attorney general told it Salahuddin was not in the custody of law enforcers.

After the court proceedings, Mahbubey Alam told reporters at his office that Hasina Ahmed's statement about the law enforcers' reports was misleading and baseless.

The reports have been submitted to the HC through affidavits as they are true, he claimed. 

In the middle of yesterday's hearing, Hasina's counsel Moudud Ahmed appealed for adjourning the hearing.

Moudud told the court that he would place arguments in detail on the issue and respond to the reports submitted by the law enforcement agencies about their actions to find out Salahuddin.

The offices of the inspector general of police, the director general of Rapid Action Battalion, the Criminal Investigation Department, the Special Branch of Police and the commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police submitted separate reports to the HC on March 15, saying they did not detain the BNP leader.

Hasina's lawyers said law enforcers were still obligated to trace Salahuddin as the court did not dispose of the petition.

Emerging from the courtroom, Moudud told The Daily Star there were many false statements in the law enforcers' reports and that they would place their response before the court in this regard on April 8.  

But Moudud, also a BNP standing committee member, would not say which parts of the reports were untrue.

"The adjournment has been good for us, as the petition will remain pending with the High Court and the government will feel a pressure and will try to find out Salahuddin," he said.   

After yesterday's hearing, Hasina told reporters that the law enforcers' reports about her husband were false and fabricated.

"We are sure that police and Rab picked up my husband from a house in Uttara on March 10," she claimed.