Home Minister’s assurance
Every extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance will be prosecuted
File Photo
Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed has assured that justice will be ensured for every extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance committed on the soil of Bangladesh. On Saturday night, ahead of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the minister in charge of the Home Ministry recalled his own experience of being disappeared in 2015 and gave the assurance.
Salahuddin Ahmed, who was disappeared in 2015, said he still gets chills when he remembers the night he was disappeared.
Recalling his disappearance, the home minister said, “It happened 11 years ago... It is still vivid in my memory. Even now, remembering it gives me chills.”
“My eyes were blindfolded with a black cloth and my hands were bound with steel handcuffs. Not for one, not for two, not for 10, but for 32 consecutive hours, I remained like that. That memory still causes me pain. It feels as though there is bleeding inside my heart,” the minister added in his remarks.
Today, Sunday, is International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Bangladesh is observing the day officially with due respect.
On March 10, 2015, members of the law enforcement agencies picked up Salahuddin Ahmed from a house in Uttara. He was then kept disappeared instead of being handed over to the law.
More than two months later, his family members learned that Salahuddin Ahmed was receiving treatment at a hospital in Shillong, India.
Salahuddin Ahmed, a member of the BNP’s highest policymaking body, the National Standing Committee, was previously held for 61 days in an unidentified “Aynaghar.”
Salahuddin Ahmed said, “Armed men in plainclothes identifying themselves as members of the law enforcement agencies picked me up from a house in Uttara... They blindfolded me with a black cloth and tied my hands. What happened afterward was even more horrifying.”
“They kept me in a five-foot cell... for 61 days. During those 61 days, I could not tell whether it was night or day. There was an opening under the door where food was given... There was a fan outside and I could hear its sound. They never took me out of there. They only took me outside the door when the room was being cleaned. Every moment, I counted the hours until my death,” the minister said while describing his detention in the unidentified “Aynaghar.”
The home minister said the conditions of his detention were even harsher than the descriptions of Aynaghar that are now emerging in the media. He said, “When I describe that life of captivity, my body starts trembling.”
After members of the law enforcement agencies left him across the border in 2015, Salahuddin Ahmed spent time in detention in Shillong in a case of illegal entry. He was also acquitted after a lengthy legal process. However, he could not return to Bangladesh immediately.
Salahuddin Ahmed returned to Bangladesh on August 11 after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, 2024.
The home minister said, “The day they took me out of Aynaghar, it was a long journey. My eyes were blindfolded and my hands were tied... Then they took me to a place in Shillong called a golf course. They left me there and said, ‘You are free now.’”
“It had been nine years and three or four months as I was trying to return to the country legally. Then the Indian government again appealed against my acquittal. After the appeal court upheld the acquittal, it instructed the government to send this person through the legal process for his return to his country,” the minister said.
Expressing gratitude to the Almighty, Salahuddin Ahmed said, “Among my colleagues, political leaders and even journalists, many have been victims of enforced disappearance. Many of them were not as fortunate as I was to be alive or to have been found. In that sense, I am very fortunate. I offer my thanks to Almighty Allah.”
Giving an assurance that justice would be ensured for extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, the minister said, “I want to say with certainty that, Inshallah, every extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance committed on the soil of this country will be brought to justice. Those who were the masterminds behind creating Aynaghar detention centers to suppress dissent will not be spared. They will definitely, definitely be tried through the courts.”
