Bangla opposition leader shifted to ICU in Shillong

Former Bangladesh MP Salahuddin.

Ten days after he was found under mysterious circumstances in Shillong and arrested for violating the Foreigners Act, former Bangladesh MP Salahuddin Ahmed was on Thursday shifted to an ICU at NEIGRIHMS Hospital in the Meghalaya capital following heart and kidney complaints.

A decision on whether to send Ahmed back to Bangladesh or let him pass through the legal procedure in India will be taken only by a court after he is produced before it. “Ahmed is yet to be produced in a court of law. Right now he is not keeping good health and was only today shifted to an ICU. He is a heart patient with complications of the kidney too,” said Shillong-based lawyer SP Mahanta, who has been engaged by Ahmed’s family.

A report from Dhaka quoting Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan stated Ahmed will be brought back to his native country to face trial for allegedly instigating violence during the strikes sponsored by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. The Bangladesh government has initiated moves to bring back Ahmed.

“But whether Ahmed returns to Bangladesh now, or gets back only after facing trial in India, he will have to face trial for the alleged subversive acts he has been accused off,” the minister was quoted as saying.

Ahmed, who was reported missing from Dhaka since March, had surfaced in Shillong on May 11, with East Khasi Hills SP M Kharkhrang saying he was picked up after some local people informed the police about a man moving about suspiciously in the Golf Links area of the city.

A joint secretary and spokesman of the opposition BNP, Ahmed, according to reports in several Dhaka newspapers, was allegedly picked up by detectives in plainclothes on March 12. Media reports in Dhaka also said that Ahmed was hiding for several months like many other leaders of the BNP before he was allegedly kidnapped.

While the BNP pointed fingers at the Awami League government for Ahmed going missing, the ruling party has denied any hand in the case. Asaduzzaman Khan was quoted in the Dhaka media in March as having said that the government too was trying to find the opposition leader’s whereabouts.

Source:: Indian Express