Amid the widespread road-safety protests in early August, police arrested 22 private university students on charges of violence.
They were remanded for two days and spent 12 days in jail before being finally released on bail.
Bangla Tribune caught up with some of the students who have described the ordeal. In the first instalment of a three-part series, the students recount the dreadful two days in remand.
“Whenever we heard footsteps of police, we started to panic. All of us were ready to get the call. We thought it will start after midnight and they will torture us. We didn’t even realise when we fell asleep,” is how one of the 22 students described the first night of the two-day remand.
The East West University student, who asked not to be named, said that nothing happened on the first day of the remand. The police just kept them waiting for the whole night.
On Aug 7, the Badda police was granted two days in custody to interrogate the students arrested on charges of unleashing violence.
“None of the 22 students arrested were involved in the protest. Some of us were held in front of the university or while heading back to home. We had done nothing but landed in jail,” said another student, who was not willing to give his name.
A computer science and engineering student at Southeast University, Iktider Hossain said he was detained on Aug 6.
“We had classes that day. We were walking on the street in front of our Banani campus, where a police vehicle was parked. All of it was happening in presence of our teachers, who were in front of the campus building’s entrance. An officer called us and we went to him. The next thing we were told after he went through our IDs, is ‘Get in the vehicle’.
“We waved at our teachers, who were told by the officer to contact the OC (officer-in charge). Within minutes, we were brought to the Banani police station,” he said.
Hossain said they were taken to the Badda police station around midnight, where they found nine others. “There were 14 of us.”
Anxious relatives outside Badda police station
The students, who were held from different parts of the city, were brought in to the Badda police station around midnight. By then, anxious parents and relatives thronged the police station.
“I came to know that my brother’s son had been detained by the police in the evening. I rushed to the Banani police station and later to Badda, but we were not allowed to meet him,” recounted a relative.
Even their requests to meet senior police officers were turned down, he said, “They, however, allowed us to send food for the boys. I was among the many anxious parents outside the police station that night.”
The two days in remand
After spending the night at the police station, the students were taken to the court, which remanded them.
Badda police were granted two days to grill the suspects, who said they spent the whole time in panic and fear.
“We had heard that police torture suspects during remand and we were certain that would happen with us. Moreover, a lawyer advised us during the court appearance to admit whatever police say to avoid torture. But police did not ask us anything on the first day,” said one of the students, who preferred to go anonymous.
According to the students, their family members and teachers were allowed to meet them on the second day.
“A senior student at my university told us that the police may politely ask some questions and advised us to tell them whatever we knew, which scared us even more,” a student said while speaking to Bangla Tribune.
Around 1opm on the second day, the seven East West University students were taken away from the lock-up for interrogation, according to another student.
“They took two at a time. They were shown some photographs of people and asked whether they knew who they were. The students who were called in for quizzing came back, but we did not get the call. We waited and after midnight, they told us to be prepared in the morning.”
Nothing happened during the two days in remand, said the student before adding: “But panicking for two days will haunt us forever.”
The next day (Aug 9), the students were taken to the court, which turned their bail petitions and sent them to jail.
“The police may have not tortured us during the two day of remands. But we were transported in handcuffs,” said Simanta Sarker, a computer science student of Southeast University.
“We were taken to court in handcuffs in front of our families … how we felt can’t be expressed in words. We had done nothing, but still were being treated as criminals,” he said while speaking to Bangla Tribune.