DHAKA: Bangladeshi police have discharged from hospital and arrested leaders of student protests that sparked nationwide unrest last week, when security forces clashed with protesters.
The students have been protesting since early July against a rule that largely reserves government jobs for children 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 demonstrations turned violent last week.
Most of the casualties were reported in Dhaka, which saw intense clashes between protesters, government supporters, police and paramilitary forces, as the country went into a six-day communications blackout.
Among the injured are student leader Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud, coordinator of the main protest organizing group, Students Against Discrimination. They were patients of Gonostya Hospital in Dhaka, from where they were arrested by the detective branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday evening. Another student leader, Abu Bakar Mazumdar, who went to meet Islam and Mahmud, was also arrested.
Haroon Or-Rashid, head of the detective branch, told reporters in Dhaka on Saturday that the trio had been detained for “security reasons” as their families were concerned about their safety.
“We have taken them into our custody to keep them safe,” he said.
A hospital employee told Arab News that a group of more than a dozen plainclothes officers arrested the student leaders despite the objections of medical staff.
“Initially, we tried to explain to them that without proper protocol, admitted patients cannot be released from the hospital. Later, they spoke to our authorities, and the students were taken away from the hospital. There was no way we could hold them more,” said a hospital employee on condition of anonymity.
“The health of the students was not so good… Asif was suffering from low blood pressure, and Nahid was suffering from blood clots and bruises in various parts of his body. Both require further treatment.”
The arrests came in a police crackdown in Dhaka, where a curfew imposed last week was still in place.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Liton Kumar Shah said that 2,284 people have been arrested in connection with clashes related to demonstrations and setting fire to many administrative offices in Dhaka.
'We are identifying the miscreant by analyzing the footage from different places. After confirming the involvement of someone in the chaos, we take action to arrest them. It has been conducted with transparency, and we are investigating those involved in the vandalism,” he told Arab News.
245 people have been arrested in Dhaka in the last 24 hours. Our campaign will continue until the situation normalizes.”
International rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern about the protests in Bangladesh, with Amnesty International stating that witness testimony and video and photographic evidence “confirm that the police used unlawful force against student protesters.”
The protests began after the High Court upheld the controversial quota system, which reserved 56 per cent for specific groups including women, marginalized communities and children and grandchildren of freedom fighters – for which the government set aside 30 per cent. posts.
Last week, the Supreme Court abolished the quota system and ordered that 93 percent of government jobs be distributed based on merit.
