At leat 25 people, including 5 police personnel, were injured in clashes between garment workers and police in Mirpur area of Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Thursday.
The garments workers, especially in Dhaka and Gazipur, are now on movement for over a week demanding increase of their monthly wages and clashes with law enforcement agencies and street protests occurred in past three days.
In this backdrop, Border Guard Bangladesh personnel were deployed in Dhaka and adjacent areas on Thursday to ensure security of the factories and prevent any destructive acts.
BGB personnel were deployed in Ashulia, Savar, Mirpur, Rampura, Abdullahpur, Tongi, Gazipur, Konabari, Sharuiful Islam, public relations officer at BGB headquarters, said.
In Dhaka, witnesses said, several thousand workers from different garment factories in Mirpur started demonstration at Mirpur- 11 intersection in the morning that disrupted traffic movement on the roadsin the surrounding area.
At about 11:00am, the police charged batton and lobbed teargas shells to disperse agitated workers that erupted clashes that left at least 25 people injured.
Workers said that they were demonstrating peacefully since morning to press their demand for Tk 23,000 as minimum wage.
However, police attacked them leaving 20 workers injured, they said.
Pallabi police station in charge Md Mahfuzur Rahman said that police asked workers to leave the road for traffic but workers engage in clashes leaving, five policemen injured.
Additional security members of police and huge number of Border Guard Bangladesh members were deployed at the area to avoid any further untoward incident.
United News of Bangladesh from Gazipur reported that garment factory workers in Gazipur continued to protest on Thursday.
At around 8:30am, the workers tried to block the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway with a procession, but industrial police and cops from Basan Police Station fired sound grenades and tear gas shells to disperse them.
Sarwar Alam, superintendent of Gazipur Industrial Police-2, told reporters that a large number of police personnel were deployed to bring the situation under control.
Workers have been urged not to vandalize and remain calm, he said.
Workers of TM Fashion Limited in Bhogra Bypass area of Gazipur started the protest, and workers from nearby factories joined in the protests.
New Age
