Dhaka: A senior leader of Bangladesh’s main opposition party BNP has gone missing since Tuesday night, prompting the authorities to order a massive manhunt.
“A massive manhunt has been ordered in search of (BNP leader) Ilias Ali…police and RAB (elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion) already launched investigations,” a Home Ministry spokesperson told PTI.
His comments came as a meeting of an opposition delegation led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir with Home Minister Sahara Khatun was underway. Officials and media reports said Khatun visited Ilias Ali’s home in Dhaka late last night and told his wife that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered a manhunt as soon as she came to know about his mysterious disappearance.
“Such an incident (disappearance) is unfortunate but we are trying our best to track him down,” an official quoted Khatun as telling to Ali’s wife Tahsina Rushdir Luna. Meanwhile, BNP feared 48-year-old Ali, who is the organising secretary of the party, was a victim of “forced disappearance” with party chief and ex-premier Khaleda Zia suspecting that he was picked up by RAB or any intelligence agency. (PTI)