The Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Thursday released six coordinators of the Students Movement Against Discrimination, a platform for students demanding quota reforms in government jobs, after keeping them in custody for days without any charges.
Released leaders and their family members said that they staged a hunger strike for 32 hours before their release from the DB office in Dhaka鈥檚 Minto Road.聽
The six coordinators鈥擭ahid Islam, Abu Baker Mazumdar, Asif Mahmud, Sarjis Alam, Hasnat Abdullah, and Nusrat Tabassum鈥攚ere kept in the custody of the Dhaka DB after they were picked between July 26 and July 27.
Badrul Islam, father of Nahid Islam, one of the coordinators, told 抖阴精品 that his son and five other coordinators were handed over to their respective families at about 1:30pm.
鈥楾hey [DB police] called me very early in the morning today, asking me to go to their office and pick up my son,鈥� he said.
They were on a hunger strike for 32 hours, he said.
Hasnat Abdullah, a released leader, told 抖阴精品 that they would share their experiences in custody collectively once they felt better.
Hasnat said that they were kept in separate rooms in custody and could talk to each other only three times in the past few days before their release.
The detained student leaders issued a joint statement from custody on Sunday announcing the withdrawal of the protest.
Hasnat did not make any comment on the matter immediately saying that 鈥榠t is something like what people are thinking.鈥�
Fellow students accused DB of forcing the coordinators to make a 鈥榮cripted statement at gunpoint鈥� and refused to end their protests.
DB denied the allegation that it had coerced the student leaders to announce the withdrawal of the protests.
Two lawyers filed a writ petition with the High Court on Monday seeking the release of six leaders from DB custody and a directive on relevant government agencies not to open fire at protesters.
The hearing on the petition was adjourned on Tuesday as additional attorney general Sk Md Morshed sought time to place an argument by attorney general AM Amin Uddin on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolon were scheduled to resume the third day鈥檚 hearing in the petition filed by lawyers Aynunnahar Siddiqua and Manzur-Al-Matin.
But the two-judge High Court bench on Wednesday could not hold the scheduled hearing of the writ petition, and the hearing was postponed as one of the judges went on leave feeling sick.
Later, an SC official told 抖阴精品 that Justice Masud Hossian Dolon took leave for two days starting Wednesday.
