Shillong, June 10: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader, Salahuddin Ahmed, who was charged with entering India illegally, today indicated he would go to a third country for further medical treatment if the court permitted him to do so. However, he is yet to decide on seeking political asylum in a foreign country, including India.
"If the court permits me, I will go (to a third country)," Ahmed told The Telegraph in a brief chat here today where he deposed before the court of chief judicial magistrate, K.M. L. Nongbri. His wife, Hasina Ahmed, accompanied him.
The BNP joint secretary and spokesperson was granted bail by the court of additional deputy commissioner judicial, B. Mawrie, on June 5 with certain conditions.
He has to appear before the court or superintendent of police, should not abscond or leave the jurisdiction of the court and furnish his complete residential address to the superintendent of police.
Meghalaya police have filed a chargesheet against Ahmed in the same court on June 3. But how Ahmed went missing and who brought him to Shillong remains a mystery.
To a question on whether he planned to seek political asylum in India or in some other country, Ahmed said, "I am just facing the legal procedure here. I would not like to comment as of now. Let the legal procedures get over."
Asked if he wished to go back to Bangladesh though he was facing charges there, Ahmed said, "I always want to go back, I have my family and children. Bangladesh is my country but there are lots of things going on in my country."
Ahmed, who was allegedly kidnapped in Bangladesh on March 10, made a surprise landing in Shillong (moving around Golf Link area) on May 11, after which the Meghalaya police arrested him for trespassing into India illegally.
Ahmed, a former member of Parliament and former communication minister from 2001 to 2006 when Khaleda Zia was the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, was one among the numerous BNP officials to have disappeared in recent months.
Today, Ahmed reiterated that he was abducted and blindfolded, but did not know how he was brought to Shillong.
