Three students who are said to be the leaders of last week's nationwide and bloody protests in Bangladesh have been "taken into custody for their own safety".
The leaders, all three of whom were being treated in hospital for injuries sustained during clashes between the police and demonstrators, were taken away from the hospital by plainclothes police officers.
The country's Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan confirmed on Friday that the three student leaders had been taken away, but did not say whether they had been arrested or not.
The students have been demonstrating against a quota system for government jobs that favors descendants of those who participated in the liberation war in 1971. When the violence escalated last week, the government responded by imposing a curfew and deploying the military to quell the unrest.
In total, more than 2,500 people have been arrested and at least 201 people have died in the protests.
