Six coordinators to be handed over to families soon: DB chief

The six quota movement coordinators who were earlier taken into custody would be handed over to the respective families soon, said a top official of the Detective Branch of (DB) police on Monday.
"They (coordinators) have been in our custody for safety and security reason and they will be handed over to their families soon," chief of DB police Harun-or-Rashid told the media at a press briefing on Monday.
The quota movement coordinators who were picked up by the DB police citing security reason have been kept in the custody for several days.
Meanwhile, Harun-or-Rashid requested their families not to worry about the coordinators.
"We have taken the coordinators into custody for their safety. We assure their families that there is no reason to worry. We are ensuring their security, and their families should remain reassured," he said.
Referring to the alleged mistreatment to the six in DB custody, he said, "There are many rumours spreading on Facebook, including false claims about me fleeing the country. There is no reason to believe such rumours. Those who are spreading these rumours aim to gain views and make money. We have not mistreated them in our custody."
However, family members of Arif Sohel, quota reform movement coordinator of the Jahangirnagar University unit, claimed that he had been picked up by plainclothes law enforcers in Dhaka early Sunday.
On Friday afternoon, DB officials picked up three coordinators- Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder- from the capital's Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital and kept them into custody.
On Saturday evening, DB officials took two more coordinators- Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah- into their custody.
On Sunday afternoon, another coordinator, Nusrat Islam, was taken into DB custody from a relative's house in Mirpur. Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud had earlier alleged that they were abducted and tortured.
Relatives of the six coordinators told the media that their sons were not forced by the DB to give statement.
They said that the coordinators announced termination of the quota reform protest willingly as the government has fulfilled their demands.
Meanwhile, relatives of those who were allegedly picked up by the law enforcers were seen waiting outside DB office in the capital.
They said that they are yet to know about their family members who were picked up by the DB police.
Al- Amin (18), a worker of a television, refrigerator and air-conditioner repairing shop at Sheorapara, was picked up by law enforcers on Monday.
His father Chan Mia, hailing from Dinajpur district, told the FE in front of the DB headquarters at Mintoo Road in the city on Monday afternoon that his son was picked up by some persons impersonating DB police members.
"I came to the DB office to know whereabouts of my son, but still I couldn't get any information about him," he said with teary eyes. He claimed that his son was innocent who worked in a shop to manage a scanty living for the family.

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