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Photographer Shahidul Alam waves to supporters outside a hospital in Dhaka on August 8, 2018. (AFP/Getty Images)

It's been almost a week that Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam has been arrested.

It was late on Aug. 5 when at least 20 to 30 men, all in plain clothes, entered the offices of the Drik Picture Library in Dhaka to forcefully remove its founder, Alam.

The arrest came hours after Alam posted to Facebook a video about ongoing student protests in Bangladesh. The photographer also spoke to Al Jazeera, claiming police had sought "help from armed goons to combat unarmed students demanding safe roads."

In the past month, thousands of students have taken to the streets after a speeding bus fatally struck two youths in Dhaka. The students have been calling for improved road safety in a country where about 12,000 people are killed in road accidents each year. Bus services have since been suspended, and the government has closed all high schools in a bid to put an end to the marches. On Saturday, police fired rubber bullets at the protesters, injuring dozens.

In his Al Jazeera interview, Alam said the government had miscalculated. "It thought that fear and repression would be enough, but you cannot tame an entire nation in this manner," he said.

The interview led to his arrest and, as Alam claimed when he was led out of a courtroom earlier this week, torture as well.

Many organizations - from Amnesty International to the Committee to Protect Journalists - as well as hundreds of photographers around the world have called for Alam's release without charge. In the coming days, we will know if the worldwide campaign has had any effect in a country where journalists are increasingly being attacked.

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