Bangladesh police release student leaders after unrest

DHAKA

Bangladesh police on Thursday released from custody six student leaders whose protest campaign against civil service job quotas sparked deadly nationwide unrest last month, a senior officer told AFP.

The group organised rallies against civil service job quotas last month that turned deadly after a police crackdown, with 206 people killed during days of unrest according to an AFP count of police and hospital data.

"All six quota movement coordinators have been returned to their families this afternoon," deputy commissioner Junaed Alam Sarkar said.

Police had detained the top members of Students Against Discrimination over the past week including leader Nahid Islam.

He and two others were forcibly discharged from a hospital in the capital Dhaka last Friday by plainclothes detectives and taken to an unknown location.

His father Badrul Islam told AFP that Nahid had returned home on Thursday afternoon but did not give any more details.

Three others were detained in the following days with the government saying at the time they had been taken into custody for their own safety.

Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP on Thursday that all six had volunteered to be in police custody.

"They came here willingly and they returned willingly," he said.