The Detective Branch investigating the killing of two people in the clashes between students and store workers raided the room No. 101 of the international hall on Sunday afternoon, witnesses said.
“One person was detained in the drive. He was released later,” said HM Azimul Haque, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch, declining to give details of the detainee. “We can detain people for questioning,” he said, defending the detention.
He did not reveal why police conducted the operation.
Md Qamruzzaman, a lecturer of Islamic history and culture, and provost of the hall, said police took permission from acting principal ATM Moinul Hossain before going in.
Qamruzzaman could not say what happened during the police operation.
The room where police conducted the drive is allotted for two students – Emon and Jahir, other students said. They were identified with single names.
Emon, who was not in the room during the drive, has been blamed for the killing of Nahid Mia. Nahid appeared on the side of the shop workers in a video of the clashes. In the video, a helmeted man can be seen apparently hacking Nahid with a long sharp weapon.
Media reports have identified the attacker as Emon, a second-year student of the college’s Bangla department from Khulna. He is an activist of Bangladesh Chhatra League, according to the reports.
Mohammad Morsalin, a store worker, also died in the clashes. Nahid and Morsalin’s families have not named anyone in the cases filed over the murders.
Police started two cases over the clashes and explosion of crude bombs. Hundreds of unidentified students and shop workers were accused in the cases.
In one of the cases, police have named 24 people, including a local BNP leader who owns two shops at the heart of a dispute that led to the clashes. The BNP leader, Mokbul Hossain, alleged before his arrest that the charges against him had been politically motivated.
Police took him into custody on Saturday but Azimul said there was no significant development in the investigation.
