Salahuddin's sacrifices forgotten by many, says Shafiqul Alam

Recalling BNP senior leader Salahuddin Ahmed and his family's sacrifices and struggles, Chief Adviser's Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Sunday said most of the people, including some of the BNP's 'young and increasingly intolerant activists' have now forgotten those brave chapters of the party's 17-year-long struggle.

"And yesterday we saw some heinous smear campaign against him. But we should remember that these are the struggles that challenged Hasina (former PM Sheikh Hasina) during some of the most ruthless years of her dictatorship," Alam said.

"But most have forgotten those golden and glorious chapters of our political struggle. Good times seemed to have erased all our worst memories," said the Press Secretary in a post shared from his verified Facebook account.

Predictably, one day in early 2015 Salahuddin was abducted and 'goomed' (enforced disappearance) and his wife Hasina Ahmed played a 'heroic role' in campaigning for the release of her husband, Alam remembered.

He said her fight was relentless and one of the bravest ones -- along with the 'Mayer Daak's' Hazera Khatun and her daughters -- during the 'Sheikh Hasina dictatorship'.

"Maybe it was partly due to the noise and outcry Hasina Ahmed created that prompted the security forces to send Salahuddin Ahmed across the border to Shillong," Alam said.

Weeks before he was abducted by security forces, "goomed" and sent across the border, the Press Secretary said, Salahuddin Ahmed had taken up the role of the spokesman of the BNP from a secret location.

The Awami League government had launched a massive crackdown on the party, Alam said, adding that BNP chief Khaleda Zia was house-detained at her office in Gulshan.

Top leaders of the party went into hiding or were detained.

Alam said he along with his South Asia chief Chris Otton took Khaleda Zia's interview for AFP after they managed to sneak into her office with the then British High Commissioner Robert Gibson. "Plain clothed security guards thought we were part of the British High Commission in Dhaka."

Alam said he always thought BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi is one of the most passionate political activists in the country but his written statements were full of convoluted and complex sentences. "It was tough to find a good and impactful quote."

But once Rizvi was arrested and Salahuddin Ahmed took up the role of the spokesman from an undisclosed location, he sent out some of the strongest and brilliant statements ever written by the BNP leadership.

"They were like bombshells, directly challenging Sheikh Hasina's rule. The language was direct, tough and hit the bulls' eyes always," Alam said, adding that "And we heard from security sources Hasina was so enraged that she ordered a manhunt for Salahuddin Ahmed."