Law enforcement agencies have continued arrests, and night-time block raids in many areas of Dhaka and other places across the country as part of their special drive against people involved in ‘vandalism’ during the week-long deadly violence cantering student protests for quota reform in public services.

As over 200 people, including some policemen and journalists, were killed during the deadly clashes between July 16 and July 21, police filed several hundred cases in Dhaka in other districts, prompting the law enforcers to go on a arrest spree.

At least 5,000 people, mostly leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have been arrested since July 16, reported police and New Age correspondents.

Many people, who waited for their family members in front of different police stations and courts, alleged that innocent people, including physically challenged persons, were also picked up by law enforcers.

Police headquarters did not share the official data on arrests in the ongoing drive that was accelerated mainly after the imposition of a curfew on July 20 for an unspecified period.

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said on Friday that incidents of detention and torture were happening.

‘Arrested persons are kept hidden and tortured and brought to court after three to four days or five days, which is a gross violation of law and human rights,’ he said in a statement, adding that fear is being instilled in the minds of the people by continuing the horrible culture of hiding the citizens of the country.

At the latest, three key organisers of the Student Protest Against Discrimination, the students’ platform of the quota reform movement, were also alleged to have been picked up from the capital’s Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital by members of intelligence agencies.

The three detained coordinators of the platform are Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Baker Mazumdar.

Nahid, a sociology student at Dhaka University who led the student protest at the beginning, was also allegedly picked up by some unidentified men last Friday.

He later shared his experience with the media, including New Age, about how he was blindfolded and handcuffed by his kidnappers, who also allegedly tortured him.

Dhaka University linguistic department student Asif shared a similar experience after his alleged detention on the same day.

Nahid and Asif were undergoing treatment at Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital after they reappeared following their alleged detention.

Baker was also staying in the hospital as an attendant for Asif.

Besides, the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police also picked Dhaka Union of Journalists faction organising secretary Sayed Khan from his Mogbazar residence in Dhaka early Friday.

He was later produced before a Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court, which granted the police five days  of remand for him in a case filed with Kafrul police on a charge of his alleged involvement in torching a Metro Rail station.

Four other people, including BNP student affairs secretary Rafiqul Islam, were remanded in custody for five days in the same case.

Law enforcement agencies arrested at least 445 people in 24 hours between Thursday afternoon and Friday, mostly opposition leaders and activists, across the country.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested 148 people in connection with 209 cases filled with violence, said DMP assistant deputy commissioner KN Roy Niyati.

A total of 2,357 people were arrested in the past five days in Dhaka city.

The Rapid Action Battalion said on Friday that they arrested eight more people in Dhaka and 30 more in various parts of the country in 24 hours.

The detective branch of the police also arrested six people in connection with the violence.

New Age staff correspondent in Chattogram reported that police arrested 68 more people in Chattogram city and other districts of the division on Friday.

New Age staff correspondent from Rajshahi reported that at least 74 cases were filed with various police stations in eight districts of Rajshahi division in the past few days.

Bijoy Basak, additional deputy inspector general (crime management) of the Rajshahi Range Police, said that 154 more people were arrested in the past 24 hours, beginning Thursday afternoon.

New Age correspondent from Rangpur reported that at least 20 people were arrested, mostly leaders and activists of the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami, in the city on Friday.

New Age correspondent reported that at least 11 more people were arrested on Friday in connection with the cases filed over the quota protest movement in Barishal.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court sent six people, including BNP leader Sultan Salauddin Tuku, to jail on completion of their remand in a case filed with the Rampura police station over an arson attack on the BTV office.

The court sent over 300 people to jail, while 18 others were placed on police remand.

Earlier on Thursday, the Dhaka metropolitan police joint commissioner, Biplab Kumar Sarkar, told reporters that the DMP was planning to prevent perpetrators of violence during the movement from leaving the capital, Dhaka.

‘Our block raid is ongoing. In addition to block raids, police operations are ongoing in Dhaka day and night. Wherever the criminals are, we will arrest them,’ he said.

Different rights groups, civil society organisations, and political parties urged the authorities to stop the wholesale arrests that started following the student movement.

In early July 2024, tens of thousands of university students began peacefully protesting after a High Court verdict asked the government to restore 30 per cent quotas in government jobs for descendants of freedom fighters.

Students contended that the quota was discriminatory and against the constitution of the country.

On July 15, members of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, backed by police, attacked the protesters, leaving hundreds injured.

Protests spread to several cities and universities across the country following the July 15 attack, leading to the killing of over 200 people in deadly clashes between protesters and security forces with the latter being backed by government supporters.