Packed like sardines, prisoners and detainees are forced to live an inhumane life, suffering insufficient food, space and toilet facilities.

A number of blanket-arrest victims on release from the prison yesterday said they had not have enough space even to sit comfortably, let alone sleep. The number of toilets is too little and many of the inmates are falling ill due to the unbearable crams, they added.

"I would receive a chapati and a drop of molasses as breakfast, and a small amount of rice and lentil soup as lunch and supper," mass-arrest victim Abdul Quddus told The Daily Star, adding the menu was the same for the seven days he spent in the jail.

"For the last eight days I had to sleep in the jail sitting in a highly congested space," said Abdur Rahim, another victim.

Prison department sources said as per the rule they serve a chapati and some molasses as breakfast, and rice with lentil soup and fish or beef of vegetables as lunch and supper.

Many relatives crowding at the jail gate yesterday were seen sending foods and fruits for the blanket-arrest victims.

Usually 10,000 detainees are kept in Dhaka Central Jail that has a capacity to house just 2,500 inmates. The jam-packed situation aggravated further with the arrival of 2,500 more arrestees ahead of the February 5 rally of the 14-party opposition combine.

However, until yesterday evening about 1,900 people arrested under the police clampdown on the opposition line-up had been released, including 260 released yesterday.

Sabujbagh police arrested Abdur Rahim, a rickshaw-puller, and his wife Nargis Begum at their house before the opposition's long march programme. They alleged a police sub-inspector (SI), who had arrested them, exacted Tk 2,000 from them threatening otherwise to implicate them in a case under the Narcotics Control Act. The SI finally showed them arrested on suspicion.

Rahim and Nargis who came out of jail yesterday said they had to spend Tk 3,500, collected by selling their daughter's silver ornaments, some furniture and utensils, to get the bail.

Halima Khatun, 52, looked the most weary among a few hundred relatives of the mass-arrest victims waiting at the prison gate yesterday. "I have searched for my son, Mohammad Hanif, everywhere and have not slept at all for seven days at a stretch until I came to know on Tuesday that Tejgaon police had arrested him," she said in a feeble voice.

The police picked up Hanif, a rickshaw-puller from Muktagachha in Mymensingh, on February 1 from a tea-stall at Begunbari in the city, where he had come to visit his sister.

His sister Azida Begum was also waiting at the jail gate with a one-year-old child in her lap. Azida said she had to spend Tk 2,000 borrowed on interest from a neighbour to bail out her brother.

With a baby in her lap and holding another by hand, Shahnaj Begum, wife of rickshaw-puller Belal Hossain, has been waiting at the jail gate for the last four days.

The police arrested her husband, the lone earning member of the family, at Keraniganj crossroads at about 11:00am on February 3. A court granted bail to her husband on February 6, but he had not been released until yesterday.

"Every day I come to the jail gate in the morning with the hope to see my husband released. But, every time I return alone at 8:00pm," said Shahnaj in desperation.