Brigadier General (retd) Salim Mahmud Chowdhury, a former Border Guard Bangladesh officer accused of transporting and handing over senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Salahuddin Ahmed to Indian authorities in 2015, is now employed in a key position at Trust Bank, according to an investigation by Bangla Outlook.

Salim Mahmud, identified as BA-3452, is the son-in-law of former Awami League lawmaker and Dhaka-15 representative Kamal Ahmed Majumder, who also served as a former state minister.

After retiring, Salim was appointed as the head of the General Services and Security Division at Trust Bank, a commercial bank supported by the Army Welfare Trust of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, where he currently holds the same position.

In 2015, during the notorious abduction, disappearance, and eventual reappearance of Salahuddin, Salim Mahmud was serving as the chief of the intelligence wing at Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

Multiple sources have confirmed that he coordinated the transfer of the convoy carrying Salahuddin to the Sangram Border Outpost in Sylhet.

This occurred shortly before the BNP leader was handed over weeks after his abduction by the Rapid Action Battalion and intelligence agencies in Dhaka's Uttara on March 10, 2015.

Salahuddin, a former state minister, returned to Bangladesh after spending over nine years in Shillong, India. He had been missing for 62 days before being found in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, on May 11, 2015.

The BNP has long been saying that Salahuddin was abducted from his home in Uttara By law enforcers who they said acted on behalf of the highest authorities.

He was abducted during a period when over 100 people had been killed following BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s announcement of a transport blockade in January. This blockade was part of a campaign aimed at pressuring Sheikh Hasina to call for new elections.

The BNP, along with 19 other parties, had boycotted the January 2014 elections due to concerns that the vote would be manipulated.

Salim was a close associate of the controversial former army chief General (retd) Aziz Ahmed who is currently being investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Bangladesh for serious financial misconduct.

Following Aziz Ahmed's appointment as army chief, Salim served as the director of military intelligence before being transferred to the role of managing director at Bangladesh Diesel Plant Limited in June 2020. He remained in this position until his retirement in December 2020.

Salim Mahmud’s involvement with Salahuddin abduction

An insider informed Bangla Outlook that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), along with intelligence agencies, detained Salahuddin Ahmed from Uttara and held him in the vicinity for several weeks before transferring him to Indian authorities. The insider mentioned that Salim Mahmud was assigned to transport and escort the BNP leader to the Sylhet border.

“He handed him over to [Indian BSF authorities],” the insider said, “but I’m not sure if his deputies were aware of this.”

Bangla Outlook reached out to Salim Mahmud via WhatsApp last Thursday, but he did not respond.

Attempts to obtain a statement from the Border Security Force, Meghalaya Frontier, Shillong, via their verified X handle were unsuccessful.

On August 26, Bangla Outlook reached out to Trust Bank’s Deputy Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer Hasna Hena Chowdhury, and Head of Operations Md Mahbubur Rahman, requesting their comments on hiring an officer with a problematic human rights record.

The bank did not provide a formal response.

However, retired Colonel Md Jaglul Ahsan, the bank's head of purchase, contacted Bangla Outlook by phone on Sunday and threatened severe consequences if the report was seen as defaming his senior colleague.

Unable to achieve the desired result through threats, Jaglul eventually offered to invest in Bangla Outlook. He spoke persuasively, indicating that he had long been contemplating the establishment of his own news portal.

Former RAB officials were unavailable for comment on the circumstances and rationale behind the illegal detention and transfer of the opposition leader to Indian authorities.

Lieutenant Colonel Abul Kalam Azad, then chief of RAB's intelligence wing, died in 2017. Former RAB additional director general, Ziaul Ahsan, was recently arrested. Former RAB director general Benazir Ahmed claimed to have no access to the information.

Salahuddin meanwhile declined to comment on his abduction.

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