DHAKA: Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives.

The street rallies organised by the trio precipitated a police crackdown and days of running clashes between officers and protesters that killed at least 201 people, according to a tally of hospital and police data.

Islam earlier this week said he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention. Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

“They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them,” he said.

“That’s why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action.” Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Days of mayhem last week saw the torching of government buildings and police posts in Dhaka, and fierce street fights between protesters and riot police elsewhere in the country. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout and imposed a curfew to restore order.

The unrest began when police and pro-government student groups attacked street rallies organised by Students Against Discrimi­nation that had remained largely peaceful before last week.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2024