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'Want to return, even risking harassment'

Says BNP leader Salahuddin in an interview with The Daily Star

Subrata Acharjee from Shillong
BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed has said he wants to return home although it might put him at risk of harassment.
"Nowadays anyone in Bangladesh can be indicted in a case and can even be hanged. This might happen to me as well. But I am not afraid. At least my family members would be able to visit me if I land in jail at home," he told The Daily Star late last month at Sunrise Guest House in Shillong.
The 55-year-old politician has been at the guest house since June last year when a Shillong court granted him conditional bail in a case for trespassing.
He talked about various issues including politics in Bangladesh and his trial in the Shillong court.
Set up in a serene atmosphere, the guest house is a lavishly built two-storey building with a neatly furnished drawing room, four large bedrooms, plush bathrooms, a well-decorated library and a lush lawn at the front
Apart from Salahuddin's two personal assistants, there are a manager, two caretakers and two gardeners at the house located in a high security area of Shillong as it is close to local offices of Indian Air Force and an intelligence agency.
The newly-named BNP standing committee member has rented two rooms on the first floor for Rs 80,000 a month.
Police arrested him on May 11 last year as he was "hanging around" in Golf Links area of Shillong after nearly two months of his disappearance from a house in Uttara of Dhaka.
His family members alleged he was picked up by plainclothes policemen, a claim law enforcers deny.
Salahuddin spends most of his time discussing politics with people from his village who frequent him in Shillong in the Indian state of Meghalaya.
To communicate with people in Bangladesh and elsewhere in the world, he uses different messengers, including Viber, WhatsApp and Imo. Besides, he uses a Facebook account with a pseudonym.
Over these months, the BNP leader has gained 15 kg. "I now weigh 90 kg. I look a little older now than a year ago," he said with a smile.
He celebrated Eid-ul-Fitr with his wife, two sons and two daughters who had been to Shillong for about a week early last month.
Talking to this correspondent, Salahuddin protested a Daily Star report on his lifestyle at the guest house.
"The monthly rent of the guest house is not Rs 2.40 lakh as mentioned in the report. The actual rent is Rs 80,000," he added.
About politics in Bangladesh, he said there is no opposition politics now.
"I'm not an enemy ofAwami League. It is rather my political opponent.
As a friend of Awami League, I can say it should allow the BNP to do politics, " said Salahuddin.
A democratic system would have prevailed in the country had the government allowed the BNP to carry out its political activities, he observed.
Asked about the recent militant attacks at a Gulshan caft and near the Sholakia Eid congregation ground, he
refused to make any comment.
The former state minister, however, claimed it was his party's government which had arrested militant kingpins Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Siddikur Rahman alias Bangla Bhai. The caretaker government had only executed the court's verdicts against the two, he added.
In fact, trials of Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai ended at the Supreme Court after the BNP had left power in October 2006.
About the mystery of his "disappearance" from Uttara, Salahuddin said he has a plan to write a book on it.
"I want to write down everything in the book, from day one of my disappearance to my days in Shillong," he mentioned.
This newspaper saw three BNP leaders from Cox's Bazar talking to Salahuddin about politics. Seeing this correspondent enter the room, he stopped the discussion and asked a driver to drop the three at a Shillong hotel.
One of the three leaders, Shafiqur Rahman Shafi, said some 10 to 15 BNP leaders meet Salahuddin everyday.
"They travel to Shillong just to visit our leader because they love him," Shafiqur added.
Salahuddin said the three leaders brought famous betel leaves from Moheshkhali for him. He, however, noted that he gave up eating betel leaves on his doctor's advice.
Pointing to coffee served to this correspondent, he said some of his well-wishers brought it for him from Bangladesh.
TRIAL CONTINUES
The BNP leader said the next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 29. The court on that day would ask him for the last time whether he would plead guilty.
Salahuddin said he would repeat the statement he had made before the court on July 22 last year when the case proceedings started. "I will say I didn't come to India willingly. I was dropped in Shillong."
Local lawyers and police officials said usually it takes around three to four months for delivering the verdict in such a case. But the trial in Salahuddin's case was yet to be completed after over a year.