Renowned photographer, the owner of Drik Gallery in Dhaka, Dr Shahidul Alam, was picked up from his residence on 5 August by police.
A Dhaka court placed him on seven-day remand in a case filed against him under section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act.
He was taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on 8 August morning following a High Court order.
Shahidul Alam is the founder of Pathshala South Asian Media Institute. He is also involved in the human rights movement. He streamed videos on Facebook Live discussing the clashes in the Jigatala area amid student protests for road safety on Saturday 4 August and Sunday 5 August as reported by , a news portal in Dhaka.
He also criticised the government during an interview on Al Jazeera. On Sunday night.
Shahidul Alam was accused of spreading propaganda and false information on Facebook and electronic media against the government.
But his wife Rehnuma said, her husband gave an interview to international media about on-going students’ movement. Besides, he came live on Facebook about this issue a number times, as reports in Dhaka.
The deaths of the two students of Shaheed Ramiz Uddin Cantonment College on Airport Road in Dhaka on Jul 29 triggered widespread protests.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the drivers named Jubayer and Sohag Ali and their assistants, named Enayet Hossain and Ripon Hossain on July 30, a day after one of the buses operated by the Jabale Noor Paribahan ran over and killed two students that sparked widespread protests in Dhaka.
On August 2, Jabale Noor Paribahan owner Shahadat Hossain was taken into police custody for seven days for questioning over the deaths of two students.
Anger on social media
Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan’s comments on Sunday's accident raised a furore among the protesters demanding safe roads. Many took to the social media to vent their anger.
Mr Khan has apologised for his comments about the deaths of two college students in Sunday’s Airport Road crash in Dhaka.
He expressed his “sorrow and sympathy” over the accident “once again”, according to a statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday.
“After all, I want to say what happened was shocking. And I am personally shocked and sorry about that.
“I urge all who were hurt by my smile to forgive me. Because I did it unintentionally without any knowledge of the accident,” he added.
Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League, is blamed to attack the protesting students holding demonstrations for road safety at various places in Dhaka. The leading newspaper in Bangladesh, also reports several hundred BCL [Bangladesh Chatra League] men armed with metal rods, machetes, and sticks attacked the protesting students holding demonstrations for road safety at Dhammondi, Dhaka, on Sunday, 5 August 2018. It is alleged that they had police protection while carrying out the attacks.
The government has claimed that BNP is trying to infiltrate the protest and divert it in a different direction.
Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader blamed anti-government faction for manipulating this incident. He said politics sneaked into the non-political protests carried out by students with calls for safe roads.
“People think the students’ nine-point demand is logical. The government has taken steps to translate them into reality,” Mr Quader said after a meeting at the party president’s offices in Dhanmondi on Saturday as quoted from in Dhaka.
“But we are concerned that there is an intrusion of evil political forces into the logical and innocent movement. We are receiving reports on the political intrusion into the student movement.”
“To mask their failure to launch a broader movement, the evil political forces infiltrated the student movement and tried to turn the logical campaign into an illogical one. They are just trying to create a chaotic situation injecting poison into the non-political movement of school and college students.”
“They are trying to fish in troubled waters.”
Mr Quader cited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s instruction for law-enforcement agencies not to crack down on the students.
In the meantime, an audio clip of telephone conversations purportedly between senior BNP leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and a young boy about student protests has gone viral on social media.
The BNP leader was heard spurring the youth, named Naomi from Cumilla, to join forces with the student protesters in Dhaka for the campaign for safe roads. Chowdhury dismissed the audio as fabricated.
Sharing the clip on Facebook, the prime minister’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy commented that the audio was the “direct evidence of BNP’s involvement in these protests”.
Claiming that the audio was made by the government, Chowdhury said: "People are now aware of the evil tactic by the government. The government fabricated such audios in the past as well and blamed them on BNP leaders.”
“I would like to emphasise that the BNP has supported the logical movement of students as a responsible political party. The attempts to misdirect the protests will go nowhere.”
Police have started 27 cases and arrested 11 people on different violence-related charges like vandalism of cars during student protests for safe roads in the capital.
The number of arrestees and cases would rise, Md Muntasirul Islam, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told on Monday.
Police have arrested three people on charges of malicious rumour-mongering on the social media during student protests for safe roads.
They are looking for 42 others accused in two cases started over the spreading of rumours.
Earlier, the law enforcers arrested actress Quazi Nawshaba Ahmed on charges of spreading rumours through a live video on Facebook.