Three leaders of the Bangladesh student protests, including Nahid Islam, have been taken away from a hospital in the capital Dhaka by police inspectors to an unknown location, a hospital staff member told AFP.
Asif Mahmud, Nahid Islam and Abu Baker Majumder are members of Students Against Discrimination, the organization that led the student protests against the imposition of quotas for civil service jobs.
"They have been taken away," said Anwara Begum Lucky, a hospital official at Gonoshasthaya hospital. "The men were from the investigation section... [The students] were receiving treatment here."
She added that she had opposed the student leaders' departure, but police had put pressure on the hospital director to have them removed.
Fatema Tasnim, Nahid Islam's sister, told AFP that six detectives in plain clothes had taken the three men away.
At least 193 people have been killed in police crackdowns and clashes since the movement began, according to an AFP tally based on data provided by police and hospitals. A curfew was imposed, eased on Thursday with freedom of movement between 10am and 5pm, but thousands of soldiers still patrol major cities and internet connections remain cut off.
It was one of the most serious protests in the country since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office.
The three students were being treated in a Dhaka hospital for injuries they said were caused by torture inflicted while they were detained.
Police have arrested at least 4,000 people since the violence began, including 2,500 in Dhaka, police told AFP.
On Thursday, the UN called on the country's authorities to "urgently disclose all details of the repression of the protests" and to be willing to participate in "an impartial, independent and transparent inquiry" into alleged human rights violations.
The protests were sparked by the reintroduction in June of a system that reserved more than half of all civil service jobs for certain candidates, including nearly a third for descendants of veterans of Bangladesh's war of independence.
In this South Asian country, where around 18 million young people are unemployed, according to official figures, the system has sparked outrage among graduates who are facing a serious employment crisis. According to protesters, these quotas were intended to reserve public sector jobs for supporters of the prime minister's Awami League.
On Sunday, the government reduced the number of quotas it had reserved, but protesters are calling for the system to be abolished.
Under the new government order, 93 percent of government jobs will be awarded on merit, with only seven percent reserved for certain groups. Five percent will be allocated to family members of those fighting in the war of independence, one percent to ethnic minorities and one percent to people with disabilities.
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