In Bangladesh, three student leaders taken from hospital by police, who deny it

The three young men are all part of the organisation leading the protest movement against public sector hiring quotas.

Three student protest leaders in Bangladesh were taken from a hospital in the capital Dhaka to an undisclosed location on Friday by police inspectors, according to a staff member and their family. Police sources denied the allegations.

Asif Mahmud, Nahid Islam and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the organisation leading the student protest movement against public sector hiring quotas.

“They took them away from us”Anwara Begum Lucky, an official at Gonoshasthaya Hospital, told AFP. “Men [qui les ont emmenés] belonged to the investigators section.” She added that she had opposed the student leaders’ walkout but that the police had pressured the school’s principal to allow it to take place.

Three senior Dhaka police officials, however, all denied that the three men were taken out of the facility and taken into custody on Friday.

The three students were being treated at the hospital for injuries that at least two of them said were caused by torture they had suffered in police custody. Nahid Islam, 26, the protest leader, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days earlier, men claiming to be police officers had come to the home of the friend who was putting him up. They took him away in a car, blindfolded and handcuffed him, before interrogating him and beating him until he lost consciousness.