Six organisers of the quota reform movement, who had been in the detective branch's custody for the past one week, were released around noon today.

Badrul Islam, father of Nahid Islam, one of the organisers, confirmed their release to this paper saying that his son and five other students were released around 1:30pm.

"I am taking my son home now," he said. "I got a call early in the morning today from the DB office, and they asked me to come and pick up my son."

Our photographer at the spot saw the students going out of the DB office at Minto Road in the capital in a black microbus.

Apart from Nahid, detectives picked up Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumder, Hasnat Abdullah, Sarjis Alam, and Nusrat Tabassum -- between Friday and Sunday. The DB kept them in custody for what it claimed was "to ensure their security".