In DB custody, quota protesters withdraw movement

The Anti-discrimination Student Movement, which led the campaign for reforming the government job quota system, has officially withdrawn its program.

In a video statement released from the DB custody on Sunday night, signed by six leading coordinators, they announced their decision to end the campaign.

"We strongly urge the government to promptly reopen educational institutions to ensure a fair learning environment," the statement read.

They noted that their main demand for a rational reformation of the quota system has already been addressed by the government.

Earlier in the day, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan clarified that the five coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement “have not been arrested,” and they will be released once the police deem them out of danger.

Nusrat Tabassum, another coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, the platform of quota reform protests, has been taken into custody by the police’s Detective Branch.

Nusrat, a postgraduate student in the department of political science at Dhaka University and a resident of Shamsun Nahar Hall, was taken from a relative’s home in Rupnagar Residential Area, Mirpur, on Sunday morning, said Rifat Rashid, a co-coordinator of the movement.

This brought the total number of protest coordinators in custody to six.

Before Nusrat, five coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement have been taken into police custody. When asked when they would be released to their families, the Home Minister said, “Look, they themselves said they were at risk. One of them told his father that he was in hiding for a special reason. They expressed their concerns about being in danger, so we took them into custody for their safety,” he said.

On Friday afternoon, police took Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud, and Abu Bakar Majumder, key coordinators of the quota reform movement, into custody from Gonoshasthaya Nagar Hospital in Dhaka. Subsequently, on Saturday, two more coordinators, Sarjis Alam and Hasnat Abdullah, were detained by the Detective Branch (DB) of the police.

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