Since July 18, more than 9,000 individuals were arrested across Bangladesh, and at least 210 people died, including one who passed away while receiving hospital treatment—marking a grim chapter in the country’s recent history.
Among those swept up were Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (ADSM) Coordinators Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam, taken into custody by the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
The DB stated the detentions were for “safety and questioning.”
A day earlier, Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Baker Mojumder had also been picked up from Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital.
In defiance of the escalating detentions, three ADSM coordinators—Abdul Hannan Masud, Mahin Sarker, and Rifat Rashid—announced a nationwide graffiti and wall-writing campaign, unveiled via social media on Sunday evening.
That afternoon, a group of university teachers gathered at the DB office gate on Minto Road, demanding answers from Additional Commissioner Mohammad Harun Ur Rashid.
Their appeal was met with silence.
“We are university teachers and guardians of our students,” said Professor Giti Ara Nasreen.
“If our students are fine, that shouldn't require stopping someone’s car to ask. These matters should be handled transparently. But Harun left in his car without a word.”
Associate Professor Samina Luthfa, from Dhaka University’s Sociology Department, echoed the concern: “If there was a security issue, DB could have handed them over to us. But Harun didn’t even meet us.”
Meanwhile, State Minister for ICT Zunaid Ahmed Palak claimed the internet “just went down”—not shut down intentionally.
He pointed to nearly one lakh SIM cards entering Dhaka and nearby districts during three days of violence, suggesting an orchestrated digital disruption.
Amid nationwide unrest, prime minister Sheikh Hasina visited Nitor to meet the wounded.
She described the violence as part of a plot “to cripple the economy and turn Bangladesh into a nation of beggars.”
Later, she visited Setu Bhaban, the Department of Disaster Management, and the Mohakhali Expressway toll plaza.
The political fallout deepened. At court, Maria Akter, wife of former Ducsu VP Nurul Haque Nur, pleaded tearfully: “I promise Nur will leave politics; just give him fair treatment,” after seeing severe injuries on her husband’s body.
From the opposition, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir condemned widespread custodial abuse: “Before being produced in court, arrested leaders and activists are being tortured to the point of disability—and then tortured again while on remand.”