A Jahangirnagar University student, one of the coordinators of the quota reform movement, was picked up early today by men in plainclothes who said they were from the detective branch (DB) of police, his family said.

The student is Arif Sohel of the Department of International Relations of the 2017-18 academic session.

Some eight to 10 plainclothes men identifying themselves as DB officials picked up Arif around 4:00am from his house near the JU, Arif's younger sister Umme Khair Hridi told our Savar correspondent around noon today.

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"At 3:50am, the group of DB men gathered in front of the house and asked us to open the main gate. When my father wanted to know their identities, they said they were DB police and showed their ID cards. As we didn't want to open the gate, they threatened to break it down. Later we opened it, and they entered and took everyone's phones.

"They took some pictures from Arif's computer and then picked him and my elder brother up and said they were taking both to Ashulia Police Station," she added.

"Later, my elder brother was released in Genda area of ​​Savar. Since then, we have not been able to find Arif," she also said.

When asked, Riaz Uddin Ahmed Biplab, officer-in-charge of Dhaka district North DB Police, told The Daily Star that no leader of quota reform movement of the JU was picked up.