DHAKA: Bangladeshi police have released from hospital and arrested the leader of a student protest that sparked nationwide unrest last week as security forces clashed with protesters.
Students have been demonstrating since early July against a rule that reserves most government posts for descendants of those who fought in the country's 1971 liberation war.
At least 209 people have been killed and thousands injured, according to a count based on local media reports, after protests turned violent last week.
Most of the casualties were reported in Dhaka, where there were intense clashes between protesters, government supporters, police and paramilitary forces as the country was plunged into a six-day communications blackout.
Among the wounded were student leaders Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, coordinators of Students Against Discrimination, the main protest organization. They were patients at Dhaka's Gonoshasthya Hospital from where they were arrested by the detective branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday evening. Another student leader attending Islam and Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, was also detained.
The head of the detective department, Harun Or-Rashid, told reporters in Dhaka on Saturday that the trio had been detained “for security reasons” as their families feared for their safety.
“We took them into custody to keep them safe,” he said.
The student leaders were arrested by a group of more than a dozen plainclothes officers despite the objections of medical staff, a hospital worker told Arab News.
“First, we tried to make them understand that without proper protocols, admitted patients cannot be discharged from the hospital. They later spoke to our authorities and the students were taken from the hospital. There was no way we could hold them any longer,” said a hospital worker on condition of anonymity.
“The health of the students was not so good… Asif was dealing with low blood pressure and Nahid was suffering from blood clots and bruises on various parts of his body. Both required further treatment.”
The arrests came as part of a police crackdown in Dhaka, where a curfew imposed last week was still in effect.
Liton Kumar Saha, Joint Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said 2,284 people were arrested in Dhaka due to clashes related to the protests, in which many administrative offices were set on fire.
“We analyze footage from various locations and identify criminals. When we have confirmation of someone's involvement in anarchy, we conduct operations to arrest them. It was done transparently and we are investigating the people who were involved in the sabotage,” he told Arab News.
“In the last 24 hours, 245 people have been arrested in Dhaka. Our journey will continue until the situation normalizes.”
International human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern over Bangladesh's handling of the protests, with Amnesty International saying that witness statements and video and photographic evidence “confirm the use of unlawful force by police against student protesters”.
The protests erupted after the Supreme Court upheld a controversial quota system in which 56 percent of public service jobs were reserved for specific groups, including women, marginalized communities and the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters – for whom the government earmarks 30 percent allowances.
The Supreme Court last week curbed the quota system, ordering 93 percent of government jobs to be allotted on merit.
