Shillong : Salahuddin Ahmed, a former Bangladesh minister and the spokesman of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has claimed he had willingly surrendered himself to police in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya before he was arrested.
Police here have confirmed that the Bangladeshi citizen, whom they arrested for illegally entering into Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, was in fact Salahuddin Ahmed, a former Bangladeshi parliamentarian and communications minister during the government of BNP leader Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006.
Ahmed, who is now undergoing medical treatment at the Shillong Civil Hospital, told his relatives who visited him at the under trial prisoner cell on Thursday that he willingly surrendered.
“He (Ahmed) told us that he came to know it was Shillong only after he inquired from the local people. He later willingly went to the police station and disclosed his identity and citizenship to the police officials,” Ayub Ali, a relative of the arrested BNP spokesman, told journalists on Thursday.
Ali was among Ahmed’s three relatives who reached Shillong following the BNP leader’s arrest on Monday.
Quoting Ahmed, Ali said the BNP leader was kidnapped by unidentified people on March 10 from a house at Uttara area in Dhaka and was under confinement for 62 days.
“He (Ahmed) told us that the kidnappers had blindfolded him and he was transported from one vehicle to another soon after he was kidnapped but does not know how he landed in Shillong,” Ali said.
However, Indian police officials maintain that the BNP spokesman, who is wanted by the Bangladesh authorities, was detained by city patrol police on Monday morning from Golf Link area after local people alerted police about some “suspicious movement” by a man in and around that area.
“How will he know the location of the police station when he himself says that he does not know Shillong?” East Khasi Hills district police chief Mariahom Kharkrang told IANS.
The Bangladesh Interpol had sent a request to its Indian counterpart to arrest the man after Ahmed’s wife Hasina told journalists in Dhaka on Tuesday that she received a phone call from her husband that he was in a hospital in Shillong.
Ahmed had no documents in his possession to prove his identity and citizenship.
“He is still undergoing treatment in hospital and he will be produced in court once he is discharged from hospital,” Meghalaya Director General of Police Rajiv Mehta told IANS.
Asked if the BNP spokesman will be deported to Bangladesh since he is wanted by Interpol or face trail in India for violating Section 14 of the Foreigners Act, Mehta said: “We are waiting for further instructions from the CBI which is acting on behalf of the Dhaka Interpol unit how to go about it.”
Hasina has not been able to come to Shillong as the Indian High Commission in Dhaka was yet to grant her visa to travel to India.
“She (Hasina) has applied for visa to travel to India and once the Indian High Commission in Dhaka grants her permission, she would be surely be here to meet her husband,” another relative of Ahmed said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, doctors treating the BNP leader at the Shillong Civil Hospital said they are waiting for the medical test reports.
“We have examined him and till this morning (Thursday), he is physically and mentally fit, but we are waiting for reports of several medical tests to verify his health status,” Shillong Civil Hospital cardiologist D.J. Goswami said.