BANGLADESH

A chamber justice of the Appellate Division has stayed a previous High Court (HC) order for four weeks that asked the inspector general of police (IGP) to appear before it on May 16.

Police chief Hasan Mahmud Khandaker on Tuesday received summons from the High Court to explain steps taken to locate two 'missing' Islamic University (IU) students who allegedly went missing almost three months back.

In response to a government appeal, the Appellate Division justice, Syed Mahmud Hossain, passed the order on Wednesday.

Attorney general Mahbube Alam and deputy attorney general Sarder Mohammad Rashed Jahangir argued for the state during the hearing.

"Besides staying the High Court's previous order for four weeks, the court also ordered to move to it with a regular appeal with four weeks," Rashed Jahangir told .

According to the petition filed over the 'disappearance' of the duo, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel in plain clothes picked up the two IU unit leaders of Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS) from a bus at Nabinagar in Savar while they were returning to Kushtia from Dhaka on the night of Feb 4.

The missing leaders are Al Mukaddas of Al-Fiqh and Mohammad Waliullah of Dawah departments. Mukaddas is the cultural secretary of the university unit of the ICS while Waliullah is its finance secretary.

A four-day strike was observed at the university in Kushtia town in protest against the 'forced disappearance' of the two leaders.

Following a writ appeal, the High Court on Feb 15 issued a rule asking the government officials to explain why they should not be directed to produce the duo before it to prove that they were not detained illegally.

Hearing the writ petition, the bench of justices Abdul Awal and Mohammad Ashraful Kamal had issued the summons to the IGP on Tuesday.