By Raymond Kharmujai,
Shillong : Hasina Ahmed, wife of former Bangladesh minister and BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed who went missing from Dhaka in March, on Tuesday said she always believed her husband was very much alive before he surfaced here in the capital of India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya.
“I always believed that my husband (Salahuddin Ahmed) is alive. I do not know where the law enforcing agencies kept him sinc that night when they picked him up from Uttara (in Dhaka) and how he landed in Shillong,” Hasina told IANS.
“Allah has listened to my prayers and the prayers of his family and well-wishers.
“I am happy that he is alive. I cannot explain to you my feelings when my husband spoke to me after two months over phone informing that he is in a hospital in Shillong,” she said.
Hasina, who reached Shillong from Dhaka via Kolkata on Monday evening, met her husband late on Monday night at the under-trial prisoners’ cell in Shillong Civil hospital.
“I had a brief interaction with him last night at the hospital. It pains me to see my husband in that condition, and we did not discuss anything but the foremost question he asked me was about the well-being of our children,” she said sobbing.
Ahmed, communications minister and parliamentarian during the government of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Khaleda Zia from 2001 to 2006, was detained by police in Shillong on May 11 from Golf Link area after people alerted the authorities about some “suspicious movement” by a man in and around that area.
Ahmed, the joint secretary general and spokesman of the BNP, claimed he was kidnapped by unidentified people from Uttara area in Dhaka on the night of March 10.
Meghalaya Police registered a case against under the Foreigners Act on charges of illegally entering India after he failed to produce his travel documents. He also did not have any papers to prove his identity and citizenship.
Expressing concern over Ahmed’s health, Hasina said: “My husband is very ill. We would like to take him back to Singapore for his medical treatment since he was earlier treated there. We are talking to our lawyers on how we can take him smoothly to Singapore for treatment.”
However, doctors treating Ahmed here said his general health condition was okay, but tests related to his kidneys did not give satisfactory results.
“Most of the tests have been done but the final opinion regarding the course is awaited,” Shillong Civil Hospital cardiologist D.J. Goswami told IANS.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Police chief Rajiv Mehta said there was no question of the government letting Ahmed off without presenting him in court.
“Once he is discharged from hospital, Ahmed will be produced in court and we will act according to the court’s directive,” Mehta said.