Election 2018: Disappearances before 2014 election

This is the second post in the Election 2018 series. See first one here
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Five years ago, just before the 2014 elections, Bangladesh law enforcement authorities picked up  21 Dhaka-based activists belonging to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in seven separate incidents over a two week period in front of witnesses. Each of the pick-ups, which took place between November 28, and December 11, 2013 were investigated by The New Age newspaper and were subsequently written up in further detail in a report published by Human Rights Watch. 

Tulip Siddiq, her mother and links to the Awami League

Tulip Siddiq in parliament

The failure of Tulip Siddiq, the West Hampstead and Kilburn labour Member of parliament, to help seek the release of those secretly detained and disappeared in Bangladesh, a country ruled by her family members, including her Aunt, the prime minister, has resulted in sharp criticism from her normally loyal local newspaper.

In a by-lined article in the December 2017 edition of the Ham and High, the editor states that a Channel Four News program, “raises questions as to exactly how deep her political involvement with her family really goes” and that the MP appears to have “misled” her and her readers in claiming that she has no political contact with her Aunt, the prime minister of Bangladesh.

Released ‘Secret Detainees’ in Bangladesh

A cartoon on secret detentions in Bangladesh. Credit: Mehedi Haque/The New Age

The Bangladesh government has blocked The Wire.in - and so am publishing this recent article to make it available to those in Bangladesh (until of course this website is blocked!)
- read the article that caused the blocking
- read about the government's blocking of The Wire

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We Shouldn’t Expect Released ‘Secret Detainees’ in Bangladesh to Talk About What Happened

BY DAVID BERGMAN ON 26/12/2017 • LEAVE A COMMENT

Three men recently released have denied that they were in law enforcement custody. That’s not surprising, given the threats and intimidation involved.

Representative image of Bangladesh police. Credit: Reuters/Adnan Abidi

Last week, academic Mubashar Hasan, allegedly held in secret detention by Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency for 44 days, was released blindfolded onto the streets of Dhaka. This followed the release a day earlier of journalist Utpal Das, also believed to have been in secret custody for over two months. In the same week, another disappeared man, Aminur Rahman, was also ‘released’, again apparently from secret detention, though this time he was brought to court and ordered back into state custody after police accused him of involvement in a bomb attack.

Disappearances since 2016 - the men subsequently killed

Below are the details of 28 people picked up by Bangladesh law enforcement authorities since 2016, secretly detained for different periods of time, and then subsequently killed.

To see the main page on disappearances, and see the list of those who remain missing since 2016, click here.

The information below is based on information from the human rights organisation Odhikar direct interviews with families as well as media news reports.

Out of over 90 reported disappearances in 2016, 21 people were subsequently killed (12 of them being opposition Jamaat-e-Islami activists). The information about these 21 people was first published in the recent HRW report

Out of over 80 reported disappearances in 2017, 7 people were subsequently killed

These figures do not include examples of militants allegedly picked up and allegedly killed - in cases like this. These are allegedly widespread, but are difficult to verify.

If you have any further information on these or other enforced disappearances in Bangladesh, please e-mail Bangladesh Politico

Disappearances in last two years - the men still missing

Updated: January 22, 2018

Disappearing people has now become a well known practice undertaken by Bangladesh law enforcement agencies - a systematic technique by which a person is secretly detained for varying periods of time totally outside the law, their whereabouts unknown with the state denying any knowledge of the person.

After spending a period of time in secret detention - usually weeks or months - there are four possible outcomes:

• the person is killed. In 2016, out of over 90 disappeared, 21 were killed; In 2017, out of about 80 disappeared, 7 so far have been killed
• the person is simply released on the streets. This happens, but it unusual
• the person is taken to the court and 'formally arrested' with the police concocting a story that they were arrested the previous day. They are then, "legally", sent to jail. This is what happens to most people.
• the person remains disappeared. In 2016, out of over 90 disappeared, 8 remain missing; In 2017, out of about 80 disappeared, 17 remain missing

The people picked up and secretly detained fall into a number of categories of people. There are:

- those that are linked to opposition politics, sometimes at a senior level;

- those the authorities suspect, rightly or wrongly, are involved in militancy in some way;

- those who for one political reason or the other, it is useful for the state to secretly detain;

- those involved in conflict within the Awami League;

- those involved in other kinds of private conflicts where one of the parties to the conflict has the power to obtain the use of a law enforcement agency to do his bidding;

The pick ups are primarily undertaken by the Detective Branch of the Police, the Counter Terrorism Unit (which has emerged out of the DB), or by the para-military organisation, the Rapid Action Battalion - though RAB's involvement seems to be declining in recent years. The ordinary police are also involved, as are sometimes the country's intelligence agencies in particular the country's military intelligence agency, DGFI.

UN's 14 key demands on Bangladesh government human rights record

The United Nations Human Rights Committee - which assesses state parties' compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - published its report on Tuesday setting out its observations on Bangladesh government 's compliance with the convention.

This report followed the government providing to the committee written and oral evidence of its claimed compliance.

Read the full report

Read the Bangladesh government response

Read documents relevant to the monitoring

See video of Bangladesh government evidence and here

Bangladesh government inaccurate statements to the committee

Al Jazeera article on the report

Below are 14 key demands made by the committee along with extracts of what the committee stated.

Bangladesh government at the UN Human Rights Committee

Anisul Huq, the Bangladesh Law Minister, responding to
questions at the UN Human Rights Committee

17 years ago, in September 2000, Bangladesh's Awami League government ratified the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Under the treaty, within a year, the government was required to provide the UN Human Rights Committee a report on its compliance. But it failed to do so, as did the subsequent BNP 2001– 2006 government, the 2007 to 2008 emergency caretaker government and the 2009 to 2014 Awami League government.

A year into its new term of office, and 15 years after the initial ratification, the Awami League government did finally submit its first report which earlier this month came up for consideration before the Human Rights Committee.

Though the Committee has no teeth, it was nonetheless refreshing to see the committee put the Bangladesh government though its paces on two separate days - something which one does not see much of these days inside Bangladesh, as the country has a parliament without a proper opposition, and an increasingly restricted (and nationalist) media unwilling (or unable) to ask hard and concerted questions.

So what did we learn from the law minister, Anisul Huq, who represented the government in Geneva? Here are my 8 most notable inaccuracies – other people will no doubt find others - along with four other interesting government comments.

Twelve things you need to know about the recent killings in Bangladesh

Four men, accused by police of killing Italian NGO worker, Cesare Travella in Dhaka on 28 September,
were detained secretly and illegally for between 10 and 14 days before being presented to the media.
In a country where torture by police is systemic, can one believe their 'confessions'?

The twelve points below attempts to analyze what is going on in Bangladesh in relation to:

• the murders in late september and early October of two non-Bangladeshis, and the bombing of a Shia procession (which resulted in deaths of two Bangladeshis) in mid-October - all of which have been claimed by Islamic State (IS);
• the Bangladesh government's claim that IS does not exist in Bangladesh and there was no involvement of Islamic State in any of these incidents;
• the various claims made by the Home Minister and anonymous police sources that BNP and Jamaat leaders are behind the killing.
• the recents arrests by the Bangladesh government of four people whom they claim were behind the first murder; and
• the connections, if any, between these killings - and the murders early this year, and indeed just this week, of so called 'aethist bloggers' and their supporters;

1. Understanding the chronology leading up to the killing of Cesare Travella

It is important to understand the chronology of events leading up to the murder of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella who was shot to death in Dhaka's diplomatic zone on 28 September.

- On Saturday 26 September, Cricket Australia announced it had received advice from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) that it had “reliable information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian interests in Bangladesh.”

- During the day on Monday, 28 September, UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office revised its travel warning to Bangladesh. Prior to that day, the warning had only stated that 'there is a general threat from terrorism,' but on the 28th, the travel warning was re-drafted to state specifically that 'In late September 2015, there is reliable information that militants may be planning to target western interests in Bangladesh.' 

- On the same day, the US also revised its travel warning to state 'There is reliable new information to suggest that militants may be planning to target Australian interests in Bangladesh. Such attacks, should they occur, could likely affect other foreigners, including U.S. citizens'

- Both the British High Commission and the US embassy say that these warnings were drafted during the day of the 28th but only uploaded shortly after 7pm - which was after the murder of Cesare, but before they had come to know about it. One assumes that the basis of these warnings was the same intelligence in the hands of the Australian government.

- At about 6.15 pm on Monday 28 September, the Italian Aid worker, Cesare Tavella, 50, was shot dead on Road 90, of Gulshan 2, an upmarket part of the capital city on a road that is technically part of the diplomatic quarter.

- on the very same evening, ISIS issued a statement, which was first reported by the SITE intelligence group, claiming responsibility for the killings. An informal translation of the ISIS statement states that:

"this is an announcement by the soldiers of the Khilafat in Bangladesh that we killed a crusader after our soldiers followed him in Dhaka and shot him using silencers till he was dead. This is a warning to all nationals of crusader nationals : you will never find security in Muslim countries. And the rain starts with one drop."

So, the killing of Cesare came soon after the Australian, United States and United Kingdom governments received information that 'militants' - short hand for 'Islamic' terrorists - were planning a violent act against foreigners in Bangladesh and then within hours of the murder it is reported by Site International (see below) that Islamic State had claimed responsible for the killing.

So Salah Uddin made his own way to India?

The round the clock service that RAB offers

See: Salah Uddin in India - the 3 things to know
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Those desperate to spin the story that Bangladesh law enforcers were not responsible for the pick up of Salah Uddin Ahmed from a flat in Uttara on 10 March 2015 - presumably suggesting that he or the BNP manufactured his own disappearance - have become so desperate that they now have to rely on quotes supposedly given by a singular uncorroborated anonymous intelligence officer to support their claim.

It is perhaps not surprising that the Bangla Tribune - the Awami League's friendly and cuddly bangla language news portal - started it off. It is however rather more surprising (and disappointing) that the Dhaka Tribune, its sister English language publication with its far more professional ethos, decided to do a bit of an encore.

Sometime yesterday, the Bangla Tribune, put up a story titled 'Salahuddin dosen’t know how he crossed the border' based around an interview with an anonymous senior intelligence officer.

Salah Uddin went to india in the third week of April by crossing the border. After several attempts he was able to cross the broder and went to india’s Meghalaya through Sylhet’s Jokiganj, said investigators. …. 

A senior official of a intelligence agency told Bangla Tribune, that Salah Uddin disappeared from Dhaka's Uttara on March 10. Then he tried to cross the border from different areas of country but because of strict monitoring of the border he failed to do that. Later in third week of April he managed to enter Meghalaya through Sylhet’s Jokiganj with the help of an agent. The official also said, Salahuddin was planning to go to Nepal. He was preparing for the trip during his stay in Meghalaya but because of the of April 25 earthquake in Nepal he scrapped the plan. In the meantime, he also become little sick.

Does anyone with a modicum of common sense or objectivity imagine that senior officials of a Bangladesh government intelligence agency - yet alone, as we have here, a single anonymised uncorroborated intelligence officer - have a single iota of credibility when they provides information very supportive of the government's line that law enforcement bodies were not involved in Salah Uddin's disappearance - when in fact this is a story where the evidence strongly supports the view that law enforcement agencies were directly involved in the BNP leader's abduction  and where there is not a single piece of evidence to support the contrary contention that he conspired his own disappearance?

I understand that the Bangla Tribune and many others want to believe that Salah Uddin's disappearance is some kind of BNP conspiracy - but it is sad that they can only do this through the obviously fictitious words of an intelligence officer. 

What this article fails to mention - because, of course, to include it would make the basis of the intelligence officer's claim even more absurd - is anything about what is known about Salah Uddin's disappearance.

Let us just remind ourselves about what is known - and what the Bangla Tribune and all the other pro-government media outlets leave out

1. In the early hours of 8 March, two days before Salah Uddin was disappeared, RAB raided the houses of three employees of the BNP leader - two of his drivers and his personal assistant - and detained them for two days. Apart from the testimony of family members and independent witnesses, we know that RAB was involved in these picks up, as it is mentioned in a police document given to court. 

2. On the same morning, acco, rding to independent eye-witnesses, in their search for Salah UddinRAB raided residential flats in a building in Road 136 of  Gulsan-1 presumably on the basis of information provided by the picked up employees. The RAB officers specifically went to a first floor flat where Salah Uddin had been staying until a few days earlier, and searched the flat. They found no-one there except a 70 year old cook who was also picked up. 

3. This flat was owned by a director of First Security Islami Bank, Shahidul Islam, who is also the brother of the chairman of the bank, Md Saiful Alam.

 4. The bank is significant as the building where the headquarters is located (just across the road from road 136) is owned by Salah Uddin and on same morning RAB raided the bank's headquarters searching for Salah Uddin thinking that he may be hiding in the 6th floor board room. He was not present there.  

5. RAB came back to the bank later that morning and took its CCTV footage away - though it is unclear whether they were looking for evidence of Salah Uddin's presence in the bank or whether they just wanted to remove evidence of the raid of the bank. 

6. At the time, Salah Uddin was living in a flat in Uttara which belonged to Habib Hasnat, a deputy managing director of First Security Islami bank. So he had moved from a flat owned by a director of First Secuirty Islami bank (which RAB had raided) to the deputy managing director of the bank.

7. On the evening of 10 March, men came to the flat where Salah Uddin was living. According to the multiple interviews which the caretaker of the buildings gave to different newspaper and others - which have been recorded both on video and audit - he said that men who introduced themselves as detective branch officers took Salah Uddin away, blindfolded from the building. 

8. Local residents and guards also confirm that law enforcement officials and vehicles were present on the road that night. 

9. Security officers of the local Welfare Trust confirm that RAB officers asked them on the night of 10 March where was road 13/b - which was the road where Salah Uddin was picked up from

10. Habib Hasnat (DMD, First Security) Shahidul Islam (Director, First Security), Md Saiful Alam (chairman, First Security) all leave the country immediately after Salah Uddin was taken.

Go here for all the links 

The article - and indeed all Bangla Tribune coverage of the Salah Uddin disappearance - also fails to mention that his pick-up is far from an isolated incident. Most recently just before the 5 January 2014 elections, 19 BNP activists were picked up in Dhaka over the course of a two week period, in eight separate incidents with eye-witness testimony in all these cases pointing clearly to the involvement of the law enforcement authorities, in particular RAB and the DB.

And also, of course, the article significantly fails to mention that another disappeared person, Sukharanjan Bali, was also found (as I have mentioned in an earlier posting) in very similar circumstances to those now apparently experience by Salah Uddin - and that he gave a statement that law enforcement authorities first detained him for 6 weeks and then drove him to the Indian border. Sound familiar?

So enough of all this. It is fine for the Bangla Tribune to have a particular ideological bent. It is not fine for it, and other pro-government papers and websites, to distort and lie about RAB's desperate searches for Salah Uddin, their circling of First Security Islami Bank and its directors, what eyewitnesses said about the evening of his disappearance - and instead to quote from sources that have no credibility at all.

As to the Dhaka Tribune. Well, it used the same quote from the intelligence officer in its main article in this morning paper as though it was a respectable piece of information. (Interestingly, in the Bangla Tribune article the quote was given to the Bangla Tribune, but in the Dhaka Tribune article, the same exact quote was given to the Dhaka Tribune. It would be nice to know which is right?)

index of material on Salah Uddin 'disappearance'

Hasina Ahmed, wife of Salah Uddin

Below is an index of the material contained on this blog about the disappearance of Salah Uddin.

It is divided into two parts. First the journalism on the evidence about what happened to the BNP leader.

Secondly, the material on the Habeas corpus writ filed by his wife.



Key journalism on abduction by law enforcers

1. Summary of the evidence **** (read this article first)

2. Interview with caretaker of building where Salah Uddin picked up (New Age) 

3. Interview with caretaker of building where Salah Uddin picked up (Prothom Alo, translation) 

4. Interviews with security officers and residents in area where Salah Uddin picked up (New Age) 

5. Article on how three employees of Salah Uddin were arrested by RAB on 8 March, three days before Salah Uddin was picked up, and how on the same day, the flat where Salah Uddin had earlier been staying was raided and the cook was arrested. 

6. Article on the raid on First Security Islami Bank on 8 March, and how the bank provides crucial link between a sequence of raids and arrests by RAB that finally resulted in the BNP politician being picked up, just over 48 hours later on 10 March, from a flat in Uttara where one of the bank’s deputy managing directors lived. (New Age)

7. 'Two stories to help understanding Salah Uddin's Disappearance' (New Age op-ed)

      - ICT witness alleges state abduction (May 2013)

      - 19 BNP activists disappeared in Dhaka over 2 week period  (Dec 2014)

Habeas Corpus writ
This is a writ filed in the High Court by the family of Salah Uddin

1. Habeas Corpus application for recovery of Salah Uddin and order of the court 

2. Supplementary application from Salah Uddin's wife  

3. Response from Government and law enforcement bodies

4. Annex to government response: Uttara police station's "General Diaries" 

5. Further annexes to government response: Correspondence of law enforcing authorities

6. Response of Salah Uddin's wife to government 

7. Further application by Salah Uddin's wife seeking judicial inquiry body

Salah Uddin disappearance: Summary of the evidence

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin pick-up

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     This has been updated to include material  published on
     6 May 2015


The evidence supporting law enforcement authority involvement in Salah Uddin's disappearance on the evening of 10 March from a house in Uttara is as follows

1. A pattern of behavior

The government's law enforcement authorities have picked up and disappeared many other BNP leaders and activists in recent years - in particular 19 activists who were taken in a single two week period in Dhaka just before the January 2014 elections where substantial evidence exists that law enforcement authorizing, including Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch of the police. The whereabouts of these 19 remain unknown. There are many more such cases. Salah Uddin's disappearance is nothing new.

2. RAB was desperately searching for Salah Uddin in days before pick up

The law enforcement authorities were desperately looking for Salah Uddin in the few days before he was picked up on the night of 10 March 2015.

(a) Pick up of three of Salah Uddin's employee in the early hours of 8th March. Three days before Salah Uddin Ahmed was picked him, the BNP leader's two drivers (Khokon and Shafique) and his personal assistant Goni, were picked up from their houses. Family members and independent eye-witnesses confirm that the men were picked up on this date by law enforcement authorities. Court documents state that "RAB" arrested them.

These three men were kept in the law enforcement custody for over 48 hours before being brought before a magistrate's court. This is illegal as they should have been brought before a magistrate's court within 24 hours. When they were brought before the court, the prosecutor alleged that they were 'accomplices' of Salah Uddin and had 'harbored' him. They were remanded in further police custody for three days.

See here: RAB picked up three Salah Uddin employees and cook

RAB 'arrest' of Salah Uddin's three employees, and cook

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This is an article about the disappearance of Salah Uddin, the BNP leader allegedly picked up by law enforcement authorities on 10 March 2015, whose whereabouts are unknown. It deals with the pick up two days before Salah Uddin's disappearance of three of his employees and a cook. It was published in New Age on 4 April 2015

More about the evidence involving the alleged pick up, can be found in the index
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RAB picked up 3 employees and cook, 3 days before 

April 4, 2015 

David Bergman and Muktadir Rashid

In the early hours of March 8, three days before the Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salah Uddin Ahmed is alleged to have been picked up by law enforcement officers, his two drivers and personal assistant were detained by the paramilitary force, Rapid Action Battalion, New Age can confirm.
The three men were arrested from their homes in West Kalachadpur and Badda between 1 am and 3.30 am and held for over 48 hours before being taken to a magistrate’s court two days later where they were accused of ‘sheltering’ the BNP leader.
Investigation by New Age has also found that within an hour of the two drivers being taken from their homes, RAB officers raided a block of flats in Gulshan-1 trying to find Salah Uddin.
After searching the flats, the law enforcement officers took away a 65-year-old cook who had been living in one of the flats where the BNP joint secretary general had earlier been in hiding.
Two days after his detention, the cook was brought to Dhaka district’s magistrate court, along with Salah Uddin’s three employees, where he was also accused of ‘harbouring’ the BNP leader.

Salah Uddin habeas writ - new application for establishment of judicial body

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This is a further application filed by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed,  ex-state Minister and Joint Secretary of BNP for 'direction to the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired Justice for finding out/produce the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed before the court to be dealt with according to law'. The same eight respondents are named in this application as in the original habeas corpus one.

The content of the application is almost identical to that in the response to the counter affidavit, apart from the prayer seeking the judicial committee.

More material from the Habeas Corpus application can be found from the Index above
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1. That the victim Salauddin Ahmed was a brilliant student. He has studied in the University of Dhaka with subject of law. He served in administration (Magistrate) …. He was former APS of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia in the period of 1991 to 1996. He is a former elected MP of Coxs Bazaar-1. He was a state minister in the period of 2001 to 2--6. He is now Joint Secretary of BNP and he is a very popular leader.

2. That the guard of the house is a eye witness of the occurrence from where the pick up of the victim Salauddin Ahmed [took place], which is published in Daily 'Prothom Alo' newspaper on 13.03.2015. Desh TV also take a interview of the guard. 

3. The police of Uttara Police Station picked up the guard of the house, from where Salauddin Ahmed was picked up by the law enforcing agencies, who is eye-witness of the occurrence and tortured him so he will not say or disclose that the law enforcing agencies picked up the victim Salauddin Ahmed. 

4. That is is stated that the petitioner's husband is picked up by the law enforcing agency on 10.03.2015 without any connection with criminal case and without any warrant of arrest of competent couts. The said news has been published in the different newspaper the following days. 

5. That the personal assistant of the victim Salauddin Ahmed, namely Osman Goni, driver Shafique and Khokon were arrested from their respective house on 07.03.2015 but police forwarded them before the Magistrate on 10.03.2015. The law enforcing agencies knowing information from them picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30, the owner of the house from where Salauddin Ahmed  picked up said over mobile to the petitioner that the law enforcing agencies members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30 PM and as such it is needed to direct upon the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired justice for finding our/produce the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed before the court to be dealt with according to law.

Wherefore it is most humbly prayed that your Lordships may graciously be pleased: 

A: To issue a further Rule calling upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the opposite parties should not be directed to form a high powered judicial body headed by a retired justice for finding out and under what circumstances the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin was abducted and who was responsible for abducting him and to submit the report before this Hon'ble court for taking appropriate action/step in the matter to be dealt with according to law 

B. Pending hearing of the further rule, your Lordships further be pleased to direct upon the opposite parties to form a high power judicial inquiry body headed by a retired Justice for finding out and under what circumstances the petitioner's husband Salah Uddin Ahmed was abducted and who are responsible for abducting him and to submit the report before this Hon'ble Court for taking appropriate action/step in the matter to be dealt with according to law 

C. Upon perusal and cause shown, if any, and after hearing both the parties make the resul absolute 

D. and/or pass such other or further order or orders as to your lordship may seem fit and proper.

Salah Uddin habeas writ - response to government

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This is the reply to the High Court by the lawyers to the acting for Hasina Ahmed to the response of the Attorney General concerning the alleged abduction by the state of Salah Uddin Ahmed, BNP leader, on 10 March, the subject of a writ of habeas corpus.

(Please note that some small grammatical corrections have been made to help with comprehension)
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1. That I [Mohammad Habibullah] am the Tadbirkar (applicant) of the case on behalf of the petitioner and well conversant with the fact and circumstances of the case and as such I am competent to swear this affidavit 

2. That the guard of the house is a eye witness of the occurrence from where the pick up of the victim Salauddin Ahmed [took place], which is published in Daily 'Prothom Alo' newspaper on 13.03.2015. Desh TV also take a interview of the guard. 

Copy of the 'Prothom Alo' is annexed 

Salah Uddin habeas writ: Government response

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This is the response from the government to the Habeas Corpus writ lodged by the the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, who was allegedly taken by law enforcement authorities from a house in Uttara on 10 March 2015. Annexes 2 and 2a can be found here. Annex 3 to 8 can be found here

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1. That I am serving as Additional Superintendent of Police, Bangladesh Police, Police Headquarters, Dhaka and authorities by the Opposite Party No 2, and tadbirkarak on behalf of opposition party 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 and I am conversant with the facts and circumstances of the case and as such competent to swear this affidavit. 

2. That this opposite parties have gone through the petition upon which the instant rule has been issued and understood the contents thereof and I have been instructed to controvert the statement of the petition which are necessary for dispel of the Rule and the statement of the petition which are not specifically admitted hereinafter shall deemed to have been denied by this deponent. 

3. That the statement made in paragraph No1 of the petition to the effect that the petitioner's husband has been picked up by the law enforcing agencies on 10.03.2015 at about 10.15pm are false and those are vehemently denied by this deponent.

Salah Uddin habeas writ: Correspondence from law enforcement

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Here is the correspondence filed as annexes to the government's response to the High Court's order of 15 March relating to the alleged state abduction of BNP leader, Salah Uddin Ahmed. The order asked the respondents to 'show cause as to why they should not be directed to find out and bring up the husband of the petitioner, namely, Salauddin Ahmed before the court.' The other annexes can be found here. These documents were read out in court by the Attorney General.

Other documents relating to the habeas corpus writ can be found from the Index above
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Annex 3
Letter dated: 12/3/2015

Addressed to: Deputy/Additional Police Commissioner (of Ramna/ Tejgaon/ Lalabagh/ Mirpur/ Gulshan/ Uttara/ Motijeel/Wari/DB north/DB South/DB East/DB West)
Subject: Missing BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed.

Reference: Uttara West Thana, GD no 634. Date 11.3.2015, and GD no 687, date 12.3.2015

About the above mentioned issue, there was an article in Daily Manob Jobin on 12.3.2015, ‘Family Claims that arrest of Salaudduaddin, RAB police denies’ 

There was a GD filed in Uttara West Thana – GD 634 - and under this situation you are asked to find out missing BNP leader Salauddin Ahmed, and if someone illegally abducted him, take lawful action against them. 

Signed: Joyta Shilpi.
BP no 77081216208
Senior Assistant Police Commissioner (Legal Affairs) on behalf of the commissioner, DMP

Salah Uddin habeas writ - supplementary affidavit from Saleh Uddin wife

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This is the supplementary affidavit to the habeas corpus writ, filed by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, the BNP leader, who was allegedly picked up by law enforcement agencies on 10 March 2015.

Other documents relating to the habeas writ can be found in the Index above.
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1. That I [Md Habibullah] am the Tadbirkar [Applicant] of the case on behalf of the petitioner and well conversant with the facts and circumstances of the case and as such I am competent to swear this affidavit. 

2. That the personal assistant of victim Salah Uddin Ahmed namely Osman Goni, [and his] drivers Shafique and Khokon were arrested from their respective house on 07.03.2015 but police forwarded them before the magistrate on 10.03.2015 in Gulshan PS case no 25(02)2015 as suspected accused with a prayer for 10 (ten) days remand. After hearing, the learned magistrate allowed for a three days police remand. The police knowing information from them, having seriously tortured them, picked up Salah Uddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at 10.30. The owner of the house …. from where Salauddin Ahmed was picked up said over mobile to the petitioner that the law enforcing agency members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30. The guard of the said house  also stated that the law enforcing agencies members picked up Salauddin Ahmed on 10.03.2015 at about 10.30 which was published in 'Prothom Alo' and other media' 

Copies of the order and forwarding are annexed 

Salah Uddin habeas writ: ''Find out and bring up' to court

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Go here to see INDEX of posts on Salah Uddin disappearance

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This post provides details of the writ of 'Habeas Corpus' lodged in the High Court by the wife of Salah Uddin Ahmed, a  Joint-Vice President of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party,and the spokesperson of the party filed under section 491 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to the High Court in Bangladesh in Miscellaneous case no 9932. It also sets out the initial order.

The government response and other documents relating to the habeas corpus writ can be found in the Index above.
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Section 491(1) of the CrPC, titled 'Power to issue directions of the nature of a habeas corpus' states:

The High Court Division may, whenever it thinks fit, direct:-
(a) that a person within the limits of its appellate criminal jurisdiction be brought up before the Court to be dealt with according to law;
(b) that a person illegally or improperly detained in public or private custody with such limits be set at liberty; …..

The respondents in the case are:

(1) the government of Bangladesh represented by the Ministry of Home Affairs
(2) the inspector general of police
(3) the director general of RAB
(4) the additional inspector general of police, Special Branch
(5) the additional inspector general of police, CID
(6) the deputy commissioner
(7) The commissioner, Metropolitan of police
(8) Officer in Charge, police station, Uttara

The application of Salah Uddin's lawyers, which was argued in court on the 12 March, two days after he was allegedly taken by law enforcement agents from the house where he was in hiding, reads as follows:

Salah Uddin disappearance - Prothom Alo interview of caretaker

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This is a translated extract from an interview with the caretaker of the building where the BNP leader Salah Uddin Ahmed was picked up, allegedly by law enforcement authorities, published in Prothom Alo on 13 March 2015. A more extended interview was carried in New Age. To read other evidence supporting the allegation that Salah Uddin was picked up by law enforcing authorities can be found in the Index above.

"The security guard Akhter Islam yesterday said that on Tuesday at 9.15 at night, a number of vehicles and men came to the house. There were three cars standing outside the house. After some time, at about 10 pm they came in and said that "we are from DB. No problem.’ And so some of them came inside the house and Akhter said ‘Why have you come here’, and they replied, ‘You will learn about that later.’  

Akhter said that at that time, two of the men slapped him and he saw a gun with them and he was scared. So they asked Akhter to sit quiet and they went to the second floor. Akhter said, ‘Probably it was the maid that opened the door. The men were there for about 20 or 25 minutes. When they were coming down, he (Saladuddin) was blindfolded and two of them were holding him each side.’ Then they took him in  amicrobus and left. 

Akhter also said that 4 days before the arrests, the tenant of the second floor brought Salauddin as a guest. They left the flat leaving Salauddin there. After the police took Salauddin, the maid also did not show up. 

Another security guard from another building; said: ‘At around 9.15 pm that night, 4 people came to him and asked him about the house number. So he showed them the house. Two of those men were carrying arms." He thought they were from the police or the RAB."

Salah Uddin disappearance: New Age interview of caretaker

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This is the interview of a key witness in the alleged abduction of the BNP leader Salah Uddin by law enforcement agencies. It was published in New Age on 16 March 2015, and is copied below. A similar interview was taken by Prothom Alo. Links to other evidence supporting the allegation that the law enforcement agencies were involved are in the Index above.

SALAH UDDIN PICK-UP

Caretaker gives account of what he saw 

March 16, 2015  

David Bergman and Taib Ahmed 

On Tuesday night, Akhter Ali, 42, was sitting in the doorway of a small room in the parking space of a block of flats located in Sector 3, Uttara.
It was nearly 9.30pm, and he was cutting vegetables for his evening meal.
For the last three months Akhter had worked as one of the two caretakers to the building where four flats had been built.
It had been a routine life as a caretaker in Uttara until then.
As he peeled vegetables, a few people entered the parking space through a small opening of the large security gates.
‘I challenged them and asked what they wanted, but they shouted back, “Shut up. Don’t say anything. We are from the detective branch,’’ Akhter Ali told New Age on Saturday night at the building where it happened.
‘They pulled up their shirts and showed their detective branch badge attached to their belts, and I could also see two pistols,’ he said.