Police arrest protesters from Dhaka hospital

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.

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Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group that organized this month’s street protests against public service employment regulations.

According to an AFP count of casualties recorded by police and hospitals, at least 195 people were murdered in the subsequent police crackdown and skirmishes, resulting in some of the worst disturbances under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s watch.

All three were hospitalized in Dhaka, and at least two claimed their injuries were the result of abuse while in police custody.

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

She also stated that she did not want to discharge the student leaders, but police had pressed the hospital head to do so.

The trio’s student organization halted new demonstrations earlier this week, stating that they wanted government employment quota change but not “at the expense of so much blood”.

The delay was set to expire earlier on Friday, but the organization had provided no indication of its next steps.

Three top police officers in Dhaka disputed that the trio were removed from the hospital and into jail on Friday.

Garment tycoon arrested

Police claimed on Thursday that they have detained at least 4,000 individuals since the protests began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday, authorities announced they had detained David Hasanat, the founder and CEO of one of Bangladesh’s largest textile factories.

His Viyellatex Group employs around 15,000 people, according to its website, and the Daily Star newspaper put its yearly revenue at $400 million last year.

According to Dhaka Police Inspector Abu Sayed Miah, Hasanat and many others are accused of sponsoring the “anarchy, arson, and vandalism” of last week.

PM Hasina continued her tour of government institutions that had been vandalized by demonstrators on Friday, visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which had been partially set on fire last week.

“Find those who were involved in this,” she told state news outlet BSS. “Cooperate with us to guarantee their punishment. “I’m making this call to the nation.”