Relatives look on as a group of suspects arrive in a prison van at Dhaka’s main court after being detained in sabotage cases on Sunday. | New Age photo

Relatives claimed on Sunday that many students had been missing for days before suddenly appearing in court after police officers arbitrarily arrested them on the street.

Police have arrested at least 500 people, mostly leaders and activists of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, over such allegations in the past 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday, bringing the number of arrests to nearly 10,000. The arrests are part of a nationwide crackdown since July 15, following week-long violent student protests.

Many family members said they struggled to track down their young relatives because police initially did not acknowledge their arrests until they were found in court or at the police station two to four days later.

A group of five friends, aged between 18 and 22, went out for dinner in Mirpur 11 area around 6:30 pm on July 25. Seven to eight people, who introduced themselves as detectives, interrupted and interrogated them for about an hour.

One of them, who was later spared, wished to remain anonymous and told New Age that “detectives” picked them up in a white minivan and confiscated their mobile phones.

“Later they checked our phones and found some pictures of protests. I was ordered to get out of the vehicle because I had a feature phone,” he said.

He also said that ‘detectives’ freed him and ordered him not to share anything with others. Then they rounded up his friends.

A brother of one of the youths said his brother took part in the protests but was not involved in vandalism or violence.

He said his family had been unaware of his brother’s captivity for three days and had been looking for him in several places.

“My father visited the Minto Road city DB office every day to know where my brother was but he couldn’t. No authority gave us any information about my brother and his friends,” he said.

After about three days, four of them were released from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Detective Office on Saturday afternoon, he said. The police had asked them to stay home.

“Why did they (the police) arrest them in this manner and why were we not informed of their whereabouts for three days?” he asked.

According to Jyotirmoy Barua, an advocate at the Supreme Court, there is no law that allows an agency to arrest and detain a person for more than 24 hours.

“In order to arrest someone, there must be specific charges or correct information about their involvement in criminal activities,” he said, adding that if you hold them for two to three days after you arrest them, without giving the families any information, that means they have been abducted or kidnapped.

The trend is alarming, unconstitutional and a violation of human rights, the lawyer said.

Police deny allegations that students who took part in the protest were harassed.

Liton Kumar Saha, joint commissioner of crime, DMP, told New Age that the police had been given strict instructions not to harass anyone.

“We do not arrest anyone without the right information,” he added.

Students who participated in the movement said that instead of investigating the killings of people killed by police during the protests, students were harassed with all kinds of charges against them.

It is alleged that students and ordinary people who did not participate in the movement but expressed their support on social media were arrested and harassed by police.

A 40-year-old businessman was arrested by a group of police officers from his house in the capital’s Mirpur district on July 24, in the presence of his wife, mother and sister.

His sister, who wished to remain anonymous, told New Age that he had volunteered during the protest and supplied water and food to the protesting students in their neighbourhood.

“A group of people who identified themselves as law enforcement came to our house and picked up my brother. We were given no leads on him,” she said.

The police did not provide them with any information after contacting the police, she said. Later, they came to know that her brother was sent to jail on Friday in a case filed at Mirpur Model Police Station.

She called the police actions “completely inhuman” and said every accused has the right to defend themselves and contact their family.

A Dhaka court on Sunday ordered the authorities concerned to send Hasnatul Islam Faiyaz, 17, a class 11 student of Dhaka College, to the juvenile centre. On Saturday, a Dhaka court remanded him in seven-day custody in a case filed at the Jatrabari police station. He is accused of killing a police officer during the quota protest on July 24.

Faiyaz’s uncle, Md Shamim, spoke to New Age on Saturday at the courthouse premises. He said Faiyaz was picked up from his house on Wednesday night but was produced before the court on Saturday.

“We have been in court every day since Wednesday trying to find Faiyaz as we could not find any information about him,” Shamim said.

The CMM court in Dhaka on Sunday remanded eight people, including BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Miah Golam Parwar and former vice-president of Dhaka University Central Students Union Nurul Haque Nur, to five-day judicial custody in a case filed with Kafrul police station on charges of vandalism at Kazipara Metro station in Mirpur.

The other five suspects are BNP leaders Qazi Sayedul Alam Babul, Aminul Haque, Sultan Salauddin Tuku, MA Salam and activist Mahmudus Salehin.

KN Roy Niyati, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said 2,764 people were arrested during the special operation following violent student protests, including another 228 people arrested in the 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday.

A total of 229 cases have been filed at various police stations in DMP over allegations of violence, he added.

The Rapid Action Battalion said it arrested a total of 304 people in Dhaka and outside the capital, including 14 in the past 24 hours.

According to New Age correspondents, at least 500 people have been arrested in the past 24 hours in Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet, Rangpur, Narayanganj, Rajshahi, Barishal, Habiganj, Chapainawabganj and Mymensingh, among others.

At least 212 people were killed in student protests against government quota reforms between July 16 and 27.