THE detention of three coordinators of the Students Movement against Discrimination, the platform that seeks quota reforms, from Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka on July 26 is unacceptable and inhumane. The coordinators, allegedly earlier picked up by law enforcement agencies on July 19 who reappeared with injuries, were being treated there. The duty doctors, forced to discharge them on risks, said that two of them were in a critical condition. About a dozen people, identifying themselves as personnel of intelligence agencies, picked them up and seized their mobiles and those of the family and attendants. They also detained a ward boy. Initially, no law enforcement agency admitted to the detention. The home minister and the Detective Branch later admitted that the agency had taken them in its custody for 鈥榩rotection鈥� and interrogation in connection with violence and vandalism that happened during the students protests. The agency also said that the coordinators had expressed in their social media postings a sense of insecurity and a lack of protection and the agency, therefore, needed to provide them with protection.
The coordinators of the movement, which was forced into violence by the government and the ruling party fronts with attacks on protesters, expressed their sense of insecurity. They reportedly feared that they might be attacked by ruling party front members or picked up by the law enforcement agencies. Their fear proved true as the law enforcement agencies allegedly picked the three on July 19 from different places in the city. One of them, Nahid Islam, found himself semi-conscious at Purbachal on July 21. He was admitted to Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital with marks of extensive injuries caused most likely by excessive beating with blunt objects. Pictures of bruised thighs, hands and shoulders of the coordinator were published in various newspapers. Another coordinator, Asif Mahmud, was also picked up on July 19. He alleged that when he refused to comply with the law enforcement agency to make a statement on the movement, he was injected with something that left him unconscious. Whenever he came to his senses, he was given an injection again. On July 24, he reappeared and was admitted to the hospital. The duty doctor also said that Asif was in an unstable condition as he had been injected with something.
The way the government responded to the peaceful student movement that demanded logical reforms in government job quota was irrational and the way it now continues to crack down on and detain the students who led the movement and others appears to be another irrational step, reflective of the repressive attitude of the authorities. The government must, therefore, abandon the repressive behaviour and make an unconditional apology and a course correction.