On Monday morning, a crowd gathered outside the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Court as prison vans arrived one after another, bringing detainees for hearings. Relatives of those inside the vans clustered around, anxiously seeking a glimpse of their loved ones or awaiting news of the court’s decisions.

Abdul Khair, a middle-aged man, was seen desperately following two police officials to catch a glimpse of his 15-year-old nephew, Md Tushar.
“Tushar was arrested at 10pm by plainclothes police from an electronics shop in Mohammadpur, where he worked. We had been searching for him since 25 July without any success,” Khair said, standing near the court’s lockup.

Khair added, “We only learned of his whereabouts around 11pm today when his employer, Sohag, informed us that the police had called him and asked him to bring daily clothes and other necessities for Tushar to the court.”

Tushar’s lawyer, Saiful Alam Miaji, confirmed that Tushar was detained under Section 15(3)/25(D) of the Special Powers Act, with the arrest officially recorded as occurring on 28 July. According to a report by Sub-Inspector Md Rafiqul Islam of the City Intelligence Analysis Division, Tushar was labelled a miscreant involved in spreading fear and unrest.
Smrithi Akther, waiting outside the court with a distressed expression and her young daughters in her lap, shared her plight.

Her husband was arrested and implicated in a separate sabotage case.
She lamented, “My husband’s dream of working in Jordan was shattered when he was arrested two days before his flight on 18 July. He was apprehended in Uttara while returning to Gazipur after completing a training course for overseas employment.”

Akther also reported mistreatment by the Uttara (Purbo) Police Station when her family went there after learning of his arrest.
The courthouse was crowded with relatives, lawyers, and journalists as the prison vans arrived, carrying mostly students, juvenile workers, and political activists. On Monday, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrates’ courts sent 119 individuals to jail in connection with sabotage cases.
Since the onset of the quota movement, 2,749 people have been jailed across 264 sabotage cases filed with 50 police stations in Dhaka Metropolitan Police jurisdiction.