Govt held professors after Dhaka riots

DHAKA: Bangladesh security forces on Friday arrested four university professors who were allegedly active in protests that erupted into clashes with police and prompted a curfew in six cities, officials said.

The arrests in early morning raids came before the government said it was temporarily suspending the curfew imposed after three days of unrest in the country, which has been under emergency rule since January.

Harun ur Rashid, dean of Dhaka University’s social science faculty, and Anwar Hossain, dean of bioscience and general secretary of the university’s teachers’ association, were arrested at their campus homes, acting vice-chancellor Yusuf Haider said. “At least 10 army officers came to our house in the night and said my father had to go with them to the police station,” said Hossain’s daughter Dipannita.

The pair have been active in the protests this week, which began after army personnel manhandled students during a football match on the campus of Dhaka University on Monday. Two more teachers were arrested in northwestern Rajshahi early Friday, said university head Altaf Hossain. He said officers told him they suspected teachers  of instigating violence that left one bystander dead and dozens injured. The detained academics were applied physics professors Saidur Rahman Khan, also a former head of the university, and Abdus Sobhan, leader of a left-leaning teachers’ group, he added. 

In Dhaka, streets that had earlier been deserted started to return to normal and people flooded into markets to stock up on food and essentials before the curfew was reimposed later on Friday.

Interim government chief Fakhruddin Ahmed said the curfew was imposed to avoid “anarchy” and accused troublemakers of hijacking the protests.