A group of people, identifying themselves as "Tawhidi Janata", besieged the capital's Shahbagh Police Station for hours late last night, demanding the release of a man arrested for harassing a female student of Dhaka University.

However, they left the area around 9:30am today.

The arrestee, Mostafa Asif Arnob, 25, was sent to court, Khalid Mansur, officer-in-charge of the police station, said in the morning.

According to police, Arnob, who works as a bookbinder at the DU library, was handed over to Shahbagh police by the university authorities yesterday evening after he allegedly harassed the student verbally for not having her "scarf" in the right place.

The student detailed the incident in a Facebook post, sharing a photo of a man and writing, "This man harassed me today [yesterday] on my way from Shahbagh. He suddenly stopped me on the road and told me my clothing was 'inappropriate,' among other things… When I said I would call the proctor, he ran away."

Later, DU Proctor Saifuddin Ahmed told The Daily Star, "Around 4:30pm (yesterday), we received a complaint that one of our students was harassed by our library's assistant bookbinder, Arnob. Later, some students brought him to my office. When we questioned him, he admitted to the harassment. We then handed him over to the police.

Around 1:30am, the agitators stormed into the police station, questioning why Arnob had been arrested and insisting on his release.

Some live-streamed the incident from inside the duty officer's room. At one point, they approached the lock-up and broadcast a live interview with Arnob.

One of the agitators said they learned about the arrest after Taraweeh prayers and arrived at the station around midnight. He claimed Arnob had been arrested "unjustly" and vowed to stay until his release.

Another man alleged that police had forcibly taken Arnob's statement. "He must be released. Otherwise, we will not leave," he said.

Additional police were deployed near the station in the morning.