Bangladesh protest leader fears for his life, taken into custody by government

Bangladesh said three student leaders had been taken into custody for their own safety after the government blamed their protests against civil service job quotas for the recent days of deadly nationwide unrest.

Students Against Discrimination head Nahid Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were on Friday forcibly discharged from hospital and taken away by a group of plain clothes detectives.

Islam earlier this week told journalists he was being treated at the hospital in the capital Dhaka for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention.

Police had initially denied that Islam and his two colleagues were taken into custody before home minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed it to reporters late on Friday.

“They themselves were feeling insecure. They think that some people were threatening them,” he said.

“That’s why we think for their own security they needed to be interrogated to find out who was threatening them. After the interrogation, we will take the next course of action.”

Khan did not confirm whether the trio had been formally arrested.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government deployed troops, instituted a nationwide internet blackout, and imposed a curfew to restore order.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told reporters from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location to be tortured before he was released the next morning.

His colleague Asif Mahmud, also taken into custody at the hospital on Friday, said earlier that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the