Cops deny blindfolding quota reform activists

Police today refuted claims that the quota reform activists were blindfolded while being escorted to Detective Branch office yesterday.

“There has been a misunderstanding. There was no blindfolding. This is not true,” Detective Branch Joint Commissioner Abdul Baten said while speaking at a press briefing.

“We have no stand on the movement. We are investigating the attack on the Dhaka University vice chancellor’s residence,” he said at Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Media Centre office.

“There are a lot of video footages of the incident. Since we cannot recognise people in the videos, we thought the students who live in the hall or around the university would be able to recognise them,” the official said.

It would help if those who were in the forefront of the movement would be able to recognise or trace the attackers seen in the video footages, the official added.

“Actually, this was our purpose. But maybe there was a misunderstanding,” said Baten.

“There was no intention to assault or humiliate them. They are not even wanted in the cases. There is no direct link between them (quota-reformist leaders) and the attack on the VC residence. Therefore, they were called simply for assistance,” he said.