Faridul Mostafa Khan, Cox’s Bazaar
BNP’s Joint Secretary General and former State Minister Salahuddin Ahmed’s face was nowhere to be found during the 6th National Council and Conference of BNP on 19th March. Although he is alive and well in India, not even a single picture of him could be found around the conference, council or the BNP headquarters. The leaders from his district could not demonstrate any pictures, posters, festoons, banners etc. of him. However, missing BNP leader Ilias Ali’s posters, festoons, banners have dominated Dhaka for the past few years. Not only Ilias from Sylhet, other BNP leaders from outside Dhaka gained maximum exposure during this time.
Salahuddin Ahmed is one of the most tortured BNP leaders who went missing for 62 days last year. Base-level BNP party workers were terribly disappointed and enraged at the disregard for their leader. They are viewing this as the extreme failure of the leaders from Cox’s Bazaar district.
Base-level BNP workers informed that the district-level BNP of Cox’s Bazaar did not have any preparation for the council. The base-level party workers all reached Dhaka on their own. Therefore they could not uphold Salahuddin Ahmed’s image properly. They expressed their disappointment by saying, “If our leader was here, his face could have been seen in banners, festoons and poster all over the walls of BNP headquarters, conference hall and even the entirety of Dhaka.”
Translated by: Sumaiya Kabir