Bangladeshi police removed three protest leaders from the hospital

Three student protest leaders who helped organize recent rallies in Bangladesh have been forcibly removed from hospital by police, the BBC understands.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder were taken to Gonoshasthaya Hospital in the capital, Dhaka, hospital staff said on Friday.

The workers said that the officers were wearing uniforms, forcing them to leave the hospital without any hesitation from the doctors.

The three men were treated for injuries they said were caused by torture and beatings they received in police custody earlier.

“They took it from us,” Gonoshasthaya hospital manager Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP.

“These men were from the Detective Branch.”

He went on to say that he did not want the students to leave, but the police pressured the hospital manager to let them out.

Mr. Islam’s older sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six detectives who were not wearing uniforms took all three men.

Nahid Islam told reporters last week that she feared for her life.

He was kidnapped from his friend’s house last week, interrogated and tortured physically and mentally by people who claimed to be detectives.

He says he fainted and when he woke up, he went home to seek treatment at the hospital for blood clots on both shoulders and left leg.

In response to his allegations, the Minister of Information, Mohammad Ali Arafat, told the BBC that the incident would be investigated but he suspected “corruption” – that someone was trying to discredit the police.

Police have arrested more than 4,000 people since the riots broke out last week.

All three students are members of Students Against Discrimination, which is the group responsible for coordinating this month’s street meetings against the government’s employment laws.

A group of students from the three have called off other protests earlier this week, due to the bloodshed.

About 150 people have been killed as a result of clashes across the country between the police and university students, where the security forces have been accused of using excessive force.

The protestors were complaining about the end of government jobs estimates.

Bangladesh has retained about 30% of the highest-paying government jobs for relatives of those who fought in the country’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

Bangladesh’s high court has now revoked most of these quotas and ruled that 93% of the roles will now be filled on merit – to meet the protestors’ overwhelming demand.

At the beginning of the protests, the government ordered an unprecedented shutdown of communications, shutting down the Internet and blocking telephone services.

Earlier this week, the leader of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina accused of crying “crocodile tears” after being photographed crying at a train station that was destroyed by anti-government protests.

He ignored criticism that his security forces used excessive force to quell the unrest, instead blaming his political opponents for the wave of violence.

Some student leaders have vowed to continue with the protests to demand justice for the protesters who were killed and imprisoned in recent days.

They also want government ministers to resign and apologize to Ms. Hasina.