The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

Awami League leader Obaidul Kader, now out of jail on bail, was yesterday debarred from leaving the country for India for medical treatment.

Awami League sources said he was scheduled to leave for New Delhi via Kolkata by Jet Airways at 9:20am for the treatment.

He reached the VIP lounge of the ZIA at 7:45 am after being taken out of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in a wheelchair and then boarded onto an ambulance. As he proceeded toward the immigration after collecting his boarding card, duty officers stopped him from taking the flight on the plea of having instruction from higher authorities.

When contacted, a senior official at the airport immigration told UNB that Obaidul Kader did not come to the immigration, but they heard that he came to the airport.

His lawyer Amin Uddin Manik in a press statement said Kader has secured bail from the High Court in all the five cases against him on medical grounds and was released on September 5.

On September 7, a medical board of BSMMU headed by Prof Anisul Huq advised him to receive follow-up treatment at Apollo Hospital in Delhi for splinters having pierced into his body.

After sustaining the splinter injuries from the August 21, 2004 grenade attacks at party rally, Kader received the treatment at the Delhi Apollo hospital under Dr Shusil Join. The doctor had advised him to have checkup every six months, but he could not do so for being imprisoned for more than 18 months.

Adv Manik said the Home Ministry was informed in writing about Kader' s treatment in Delhi on September 17, and he was verbally informed that there were no restrictions on his treatment abroad.

Kader said, "I am victim of political conspiracy." Adv Manik said there is no legal bar to his going abroad for treatment. He got bail in all the cases. "This is inhuman and unfortunate," he said.

The lawyer hoped that the government would permit him soon for his treatment in the Indian capital. "Otherwise, he may be crippled permanently."

Back from the airport, Kader was again admitted to BSMMU.

Kader, a former state minister of the 1996-2001 AL government, is among many former ruling politicians, bureaucrats and business tycoons arrested during the post-1/11 crackdown on graft suspects.