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Salahuddin Ahmed, a leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) who has been in Shillong for the past 10 years, stated that the unrest in Bangladesh is a consequence of Sheikh Hasina’s misrule and misgovernance.
In his Exclusive interview to Meghalaya News 24, the senior BNP leader said, “This was her fate which is the consequence of her misrule, tyranny, absence of rule of law, and the way she ruled Bangladesh without any mandate for three consecutive terms with totally flawed elections. This is unprecedented in world history, and this was her fate that what happened there.”
When asked about his entry to Meghalaya, the Ahmed asserted that the people of Bangladesh hold Hasina responsible for conspiring to send him to India and for the hardships he endured. Highlighting the conspiracy, he claimed that many of his colleagues were killed, but he survived.
“People of Bangladesh strongly believe that Sheikh Hasina enforced my disappearance, and unlike many of our colleagues, who were not so lucky to survive, luckily, I’m still alive,” Ahmed said.
When asked if he is ready to return to Bangladesh now that the rule has changed, Ahmed responded, “Yes, I am ready. I was ready from day one to go back to my homeland.”
Regarding former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Ahmed mentioned that while the BNP needs its leader, the party is also considering sending her abroad for advanced medical treatment due to her serious health condition.
“Our main demand is to free her (Khaleda Zia) from all hassles. We need her as our leader, and she needs very seriously advanced treatment abroad. We’re thinking along that line,” he added.
An “interim government” is taking shape in Bangladesh, a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country and the military took control amid massive protests. Amid escalating protests in Bangladesh, Hasina arrived in New Delhi.
It may be mentioned that Ahmed served as the assistant private secretary to then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia when the BNP came to power in 1991. He was later appointed as the state minister of communication during 2001–2006 in the Second Khaleda Cabinet. Ahmed served as the Joint General Secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. In January 2015, he was appointed spokesperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party by Khaleda Zia. In March 2015, Ahmed disappeared in Uttara, Dhaka. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party claimed he had been arrested by law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh, and according to witnesses, by the Rapid Action Battalion. He reappeared two months later in Shillong, Meghalaya, India, where he was arrested by the Indian Police and charged under the Foreigners Act for entering India illegally. On 3 June 2015, he was charged by Shillong Police and was interned in North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, where he received treatment. More than three years later, in October 2018, the East Khasi Hills District Court in Meghalaya, India, acquitted him of the trespassing case. While in Shillong jail, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party appointed him as a member of its standing committee. Salahuddin Ahmed was acquitted and granted permission to return home by the appellate court in Shillong on 28 February 2023.