Key organiser of quota demo 'picked up'

Nahid Islam, a key organisers of the anti-discrimination student movement, was picked up by plainclothes persons from a house in Sabujbagh early Saturday, according to witnesses.

They alleged the people broke the locks of the building gates to enter and detain Nahid, a masters student of DU's sociology department who has been leading the quota reform protests from the front line since the first week of July.

His family members and fellow protesters alleged that law enforcers picked him up as he declined the government's proposal for a dialogue ahead of the Supreme Court's hearing on the quota issue on Sunday.

However, three of the 27 protest organisers met the law minister on Friday night in this regard.

The three – Hasnat Abdullah, Sarjis Alam and Hasib Al Islam – placed an eight-point demand to the minister, while Nahid and others earlier announced a nine-point demand.

Multiple witnesses told The Daily Star that around 25-30 plainclothes persons, including a woman, came to the building in two black vans and two SUV's around 1:10am.

After about 10-15 minutes, around five of them jumped over the boundary wall and broke the main gate's lock with an iron rod from the inside. They then brought a cutter from the car and cut two locks of a collapsible gate inside the building, a witness, who is a guard of an adjacent building, described.

He said the people brought out a man from the second floor and left the area around 2:30am.

"The woman among them told us not to call or tell anyone about the incident."

Another witness said locals in the area did not know who Nahid was nor the reason behind his detention.

This newspaper was able to contact Nahid's friend, who was with him that night.

Requesting anonymity, he said, "When they [plainclothes persons] reached the first floor, we knew they came for us. Nahid told me to run and I went and hid on the rooftop. They then took him away.

"I later heard they were from the Detective Branch of police and that a Rab team was also with them."

These correspondents waited in front of the building from 7:30am to 9:00am yesterday to talk to the tenants and house owners, but no one responded.

Nahid's father Badrul Islam said he learned his son was picked up from the house owners.

"My son has been fighting against discriminations. The government tried to convince him to sit with them before the Supreme Court's hearing but my son denied it. That's why the law enforcers picked him up."

However, no law enforcement agency has admitted to picking Nahid up till the filing of this report around 9:00pm.

His father spent the day rushing from the DB office to the CID office and then Sabujbagh Police Station.

In the evening, he said they were yet to get any news from any law enforcers regarding Nahid's whereabouts.

"We want our son back immediately."

Around 11:00pm, Nahid's father filed a general diary with Khilgaon Police Station.

Contacted, both the DB and Rab denied the allegation of picking up Nahid from Sabujbagh. Deputy Commissioner (media) of Dhaka Metropalitan Police Faruk Hossain said they did not detain any of the protesters.

Lt Col Munim Ferdous, director legal and media wing of Rab, said, he doesn't know about any such incident.

Nahid is the member-secretary of Democratic Students Force, a newly formed political party. Its convenor Akhter Hossain, former welfare secretary of Dhaka University Central Students' Union, was also arrested on Wednesday from the campus.