The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamaluddin Jami

Five university professors were arrested by army-led security forces in Dhaka and Rajshahi early yesterday on suspicion of instigating violent clashes between students and police that led to the imposition of a curfew in the capital and six other divisional cities.

Besides, some 50 people, including students, were detained from the Dhaka University and nearby Aziz Super Market A general diary was filed against as many as 46 detained people by police. They have been kept at Shahbagh Police Station, where the diary was filed in the city.

It is learnt that the security forces have also been raiding different areas across the capital to arrest suspected students on suspicion of their involvement in the last week's three days of rioting. The arrests of two university professors came in raids early yesterday, as the government temporarily suspended a curfew imposed after three days of unrest in the country. The 14-hour suspension began at 8:00am and the curfew was re-imposed at 10:00pm.

However, there was no sign of protests since the curfew was imposed on Wednesday evening, and traffic poured onto the streets of the main cities yesterday immediately after the curfew was lifted. The two teachers were arrested from their respective residences at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University in early morning raids.

Prof Harun-ar-Rashid, Dean of Dhaka University's Faculty of Social Science, and Prof Anwar Hossain, Dean of Bioscience and general secretary of the Dhaka University Teachers' Association, were arrested, acting vice-chancellor Prof Yusuf Haider said.

"We're very much concerned about our two arrested colleagues….We're trying to know where they have been kept and maintaining constant contact with their families," he said.

"At least 10 army personnel came to our house in the night and said my father had to go with them to the police station," Anwar Hossain's son Sanjid Hossain told reporters. "Then they took my father on board of an army jeep, along with two CPUs (central processing units) of computers used by us."

Sanjid said they contacted the Shahbagh Police Station, but did not find his father there. "My mother became very concerned and fell sick after the arrest of my father," he said.

Barnali Rashid, daughter of Harun-ar-Rashid, said, "My father and uncle Anwar were picked up by joint security forces at their homes on the university campus."

The arrested teachers have been vocal in their criticisms of the army and the military-backed Caretaker government, which took power seven months ago following a political crisis.

They had also been active in the protests last week, which began after army personnel manhandled students during a football match on the campus of Dhaka University on Monday.

Our Rajshahi Correspondent reports: Three more teachers were arrested from their residences at Rajshahi University early yesterday, said the university vice-chancellor Altaf Hossain.

Hossain said intelligence officers told him they suspected teachers at the university of instigating violence there last week that left one bystander dead and dozens injured.

The detained academics were former vice-chancellor Prof Saidur Rahman Khan, Prof Abdus Sobhan of the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics and a leader of a left-leaning teachers' group, and Prof Moloy Kumar Bhoumik of the Department of Management

"Their families said security forces in civilian dress picked up the teachers from their residences," he said.

Meanwhile, streets that had earlier been deserted started returning to normal and people flooded into markets in the capital to stock up on food and essentials before the curfew was re-imposed last night, witnesses said.