87pc of the arrested in Dhaka have no political identity

Nasir Uddin drives a pickup truck in the city’s Farmgate area. On Tuesday afternoon, his wife Babli was waiting in front of the DB office on Minto Road in the capital with the couple’s four small children. Nasir’s mother Rumela Akhtar was crying beside her.

They said that some people identifying themselves as DB members picked up Nasir from the house. They came in search of Nasir.

Not only Nasir, relatives of many people are gathering in the capital every day in front of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s DB office, various police stations and courts.

Prothom Alo spoke with nine such family members in front of the DB office from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm Tuesday. Four more such families were found waiting in front of the gate of the DB office the previous day. Most of them are relatives of day labourers, students and traders.

However, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told the media Tuesday that they are not arresting any innocent person.

He further said in response to the questions of newspersons at the secretariat that those, who have been identified with intelligence information and video footage and evidence, are being arrested. If someone is detained by mistake, those who are found to be innocent after checking with the police station are being released.

So there is no mass arrest, he insisted.

As of Tuesday, 2,891 people have been arrested in 270 cases in Dhaka centering the quota reform movement, Dhaka court sources said.

An estimate of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) said a total of 2,630 people have been arrested and sent to court in 243 cases related to the quota reform movement in the capital until Monday. Of those, 2,284 people (86.84 per cent of the total arrests) were found to have no political identity. That is, they have no affiliation with any political party.

Relevant people said most of them are students, labourers and common people.

Among the arrested 269 are leaders and activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), 63 are leaders and activists of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, 10 are Shibir men. Apart from this, there are three people involved with the politics of Gono Odhikar Parishad and one person from JP. The percentage of political persons of the total arrests is just 13.16.

Why are so many common people being arrested though the government and the police repeatedly claimed that various political parties were involved in the violence during the quota movement?

Speaking in this regard, Dhaka Metropolitan Police joint commissioner (crime) Liton Kumar Saha told Prothom Alo, “There are instructions from the highest level of the police not to harass any innocent person who does not have any evidence of involvement in violence or crime. We are strictly monitoring these issues. That is why no one is being arrested without evidence.”

Mohammad Hasan is an Uber motorcycle rider. He went missing after leaving his Ibrahimpur residence in the city with a motorcycle Friday morning. Hasan’s wife Nazma Akter and mother-in-law Marzia Begum came to the DB office Monday afternoon in search of him.

Teary Marzia Begum told Prothom Alo, “The boy (Hasan) is an orphan as none of his parents are alive. We are not getting him. He hasn’t done anything. Police detained him for nothing.”

Another woman, Kulsum Begum who was waiting outside the DB office’s gate, said on Tuesday that her son Al-Amin was a student of International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT). He left home Sunday to prepare a passport to go abroad. The police intercepted him in front of Rajuk College in Azampur of the city’s Uttara and found several photos of the quota reform movement in his mobile phone. The police of Uttara East police station detained and beat him.

Kulsum Begum said on information she went to the police station at night. They told her that Al-Amin was in custody of DB but the DB was not saying anything about her son.

Parents of 18-year-old Al Amin were wailing in front of the DB office Monday afternoon as they did not get any information of the whereabouts of their son.

Chan Mia said his son would work at an air conditioner repairing shop. The police detained him Monday. “I just want to know whether my son is in custody of the administration or someone has caused him to disappear.”

Mobasher Ahmed’s wife came to the DB office’s gate in search of him Monday afternoon.

She told Prothom Alo, “My husband is a teacher at an orphanage and madrasah attached to Kataban mosque. Police picked up another teacher Shafiq Ahmed and him. I heard they are in the DB office but the police are now acknowledging.”

Mobasher Ahmed is not involved with any political party, he added.

A woman was seen crying for her son, a candidate of HSC exams from Udayan School and College in the city, in front of the DB office’s gate. 

She said her son went out to meet his friends to discuss the exams. She went to New Market and Dhanmondi police stations but did not get any information about her son.

Certain Nasrin Sultana and her daughter Suraiya Tasnim from Uttara’s sector-13 came to the DB office. Nasrin Sultana said a team of 8-10 police members went to their home on 28 July evening and said their senior officials want to talk to her husband Khalid Saifullah and son Ahmed Samran. They took them but since then she was not getting any information on them.

Later, Khalid Saifullah was sent to court but son Ahmed Samran, a BBA student at North South University, remained missing as of Tuesday evening.

Relatives said 65-year-old Khalid Saifullah has a business in Saudi Arabia and he lives there most of the time.

Dabir Uddin Tushar, joint secretary general of Medical Technologist Association of Bangladesh, has been missing for six days.

Speaking to Prothom Alo in front of the DB office’s gate in the city, his wife Reshma Karim said the police picked Dabir up from the Rakin City residence in Mirpur Thursday. Initially, the DB police members entered the home. Later, two police members of Kafrul police station picked him up. Since then he has been missing.

Resham said her husband is involved with politics and he had support for the students’ movement. “He posted a status on his Facebook account in support of the movement as well. But does this mean he would be subjected to disappearance? The police station says the DB has taken him, and the DB says they don’t have any information on him. I did not get any information about him even after going to court. Then where is my husband?”

Prothom Alo talked to former IGP Nur Mohammad about arrests of so many people who are not involved with politics.

He said, “We have heard about arrest-business during critical times. Now we are going through a highly critical time. It is truly a problem if there is no supervision of who arrests whom, when and why.”

Such incidents take place more when the police are given a target to arrest a certain number of people, he thinks.

“The arrests become business. That is why the superiors should supervise everything with importance staying within their mandate instead of talking like political leaders,” he concluded.

*The report, originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza