Dhaka: The High Court on Thursday issued a rule asking the government to explain why directions should not be given to find out BNP joint secretary general Salahuddin Ahmed and produce him before the court by Sunday.

Responding to a petition filed by Salahuddin’s wife, Hasina Ahmed, an HC division bench comprising Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui and Justice Gobinda Chandra Tagore passed the order.

The rule was made returnable by 15 March, said the court order.

Lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain and Moudud Ahmed appeared for the petitioner while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the government.

During the hearing Salahuddin’s advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain claimed that the plain-clothes police had picked the BNP leader up from an Uttara house in the capital on Tuesday night.

‘We wanted to file a general diary in this connection, but police did not accept it,’ Khandker Mahbub complained.

He also said, ‘Since the law enforcers are denying the detention of Salahuddin, we fear that his life might be threatened.’

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, however, opposed the rule saying, ‘Police IG has confirmed that security forces didn’t detain Salahuddin.’

He said that Salahuddin’s apparent disappearance might be politically motivated.

The HC on its turn said though it accepted prosecutor’s claim that the BNP leader had not been detained, it saw no reason why police refused to file a GD.

Salahuddin had been issuing statements, including those with hartal announcements, on behalf of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, since the arrest of another BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.