DHAKA: Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month’s street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

195 killed, 4,000 arrested in ensuing police crackdown and clashes

“They took them from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky said. “The men were from the Detective Branch.”

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

The trio’s student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not “at the expense of so much blood”.

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

Garment tycoon arrested

Police said on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday, police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh’s biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the “anarchy, arson and vandalism” of last week.

PM Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

“Find those who were involved in this,” she said, according to state news agency BSS. “Coop­erate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation.”

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2024