Dhaka, Sept. 24 -- A mother sits at a Cumilla police station with her son Niloy Sarkar's SSC and HSC certificates. Police said he would be released if she could prove he was a student.

Police picked Niloy up from Panpatti during a crackdown. His mother Mita Sarkar learnt later he was held at Kotwali.

On Thursday, she said: "They did well to detain him. The officers want what is good, that's why they detained him. My son sits around chatting with boys at about 9pm -- he was doing wrong things, they brought him in, and that's very good."

Yasmin (pseudonym), aunt of an eighth-grader known only as Shipon, said: "He left home in the evening and police brought him in. Instead of keeping him detained, they could have beaten him a few times an...