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Agence France-Presse

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 the recent days of deadly nationwide unrest.
Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were on Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plain clothes 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 told journalists 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.
Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told reporters from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.
He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.
His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, said earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week’s unrest.
Police have arrested at least 4,500 people since the unrest began.
“We’ve carried out raids in the capital and we will continue the raids until the perpetrators are arrested,” said Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner Biplob Kumar Sarker.
“We’re not arresting general students, only those who vandalised government properties and set them on fire.”
Islam and other thousands of other students were protesting the June reintroduction of a scheme reserving more than half of all government jobs for certain candidates.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.
Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina’s Awami League.

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the quotas entirely.
Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
On Saturday, Hasina again surveyed some of the damage caused during the unrest.
“This does is nothing but cripple our economy and turn us into a nation of beggars,” she told reporters.
“I want justice.”


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Bangladesh

Bangladesh protest leader fears for his life, taken into custody by government

Demonstrations are ongoing in Bangladesh following indiscriminate killings and mass arrests during protests over civil job quotas. Photo: AFP

Nahid Islam, a leader of main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, speaks during an interview in Dhaka on July 22. Islam has previously accused the police of torture. Photo: AFP

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses the media after her visit to a hospital on Saturday to check on the wounded after recent clashes between students and police. Photo: AFP

Bangladesh faces demand for justice over ‘unlawful killings’ during student protests

Protesters clash with Border Guard Bangladesh and the police outside the state-owned Bangladesh Television as violence erupts across the country after anti-quota protests by students, in Dhaka. Photo: Reuters

A woman cries after receiving the remains of her son, who was shot during clashes between the police and anti-job quota protesters, at a morgue in Dhaka on July 22. Photo: AP

Members of Bangladesh Army patrol on the second day of curfew on July 21 in Dhaka as violence erupted in parts of the country after student protests against government job quotas. Photo: Reuters

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reviews an honour guard at the Government House in Bangkok, during her visit to Thailand in April. Photo: Reuters

Members of the leftist students organisations march in a protest rally in Kolkata, India, on July 25 in solidarity with protesting students in Bangladesh. Photo: AP

Bangladesh student leaders order 48-hour halt to protests over death toll: ‘so much blood’

Photo: Reuters

Nahid Islam, a top leader of the main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, suspended protests on Monday for 48 hours. Photo: AFP

Students beat a policeman with sticks during a protest over a controversial quota system for government job applicants, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 18. Photo: AP

Bangladesh army personnel stand guard near parliament house amid a curfew following clashes between police and protestors, in Dhaka. Photo: AFP

Bangladesh student protests turn deadly as demonstrators bring nation to standstill

Police detains a man who was not leaving the University of Dhaka premises, a day after the clash between Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling party Bangladesh Awami League, and anti-quota protesters, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, July 17, 2024. Photo: Reuters

Anti-quota supporters clash with police and Awami League supporters at the Rampura area in Dhaka, Bangladesh on July 18. Photo: Reuters

Students protesting against quotas in government jobs offer prayers over symbolic coffins of victims, a day after they died in a clash with police personnel, during an absentee funeral prayer ceremony at Dhaka University on July 17. Photo: AFP

Students wearing headbands with Bangladesh’s national flag shout slogans during a protest at Dhaka University on July 17. Photo: AFP

Bangladesh accepts court ruling to cut state job quotas after unrest, eases curfew

Bangladeshi soldiers stand guard along a street during a curfew amid the anti-quota protests, in Dhaka on Monday. Photo: AFP

Residents queue to receive credit on their prepaid electric bills after an internet blackout during the anti-quota protests, in Dhaka. Photo: AFP

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Photo: dpa

Bangladeshi protesters demand end to civil service job quotas

Demonstrators shout slogans as they take part in a protest, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on July 4, demanding the cancellation of the quota system in government jobs. Photo: EPA-EFE

Students and job aspirants hold placards during a protest in Dhaka on July 4 against “discriminatory” quotas for government jobs. Photo: AFP

Students and job aspirants shout slogans during a protest in Dhaka on July 3. Photo: AFP

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South Asia

Prime Minister Hasina demands justice for the damage caused by the unrest


Leaders of Students Against Discrimination were forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plain clothes detectives.


Protests around the world

Global South

Bangladesh protest leader fears for his life, taken into custody by government

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Prime Minister Hasina demands justice for the damage caused by the unrest

Prime Minister Hasina demands justice for the damage caused by the unrest