More than 300 garment factories were shut as readymade garment workers flew into a rage and clashed with police in Ashulia for third straight day on Wednesday, injuring over 100 people including 10 law enforcers.
Our correspondent reports that over 3,000 law enforcers deployed in the area have finally managed to bring the situation under control at around 12:30pm. The situation is now tense at the RMG hub of Ashulia.
The violence disrupted transport movement on the Dhaka-Tangail highway for nearly four hours since the workers took to the street around 8:30am demanding pay hike.
Several hundreds of vehicles remained stranded during the turmoil, causing immense sufferings to commuters.
“The situation is worse than the last two days and we had to shoot several hundreds of rubber bullets and teargas canisters to bring the situation under control,” said Fayezul Kabir, deputy director of Industrial Police.
The entire Ashulia industrial belt turned into a battle ground as nearly one lakh workers of the area joined today’s demonstration.
The authorities of the garment factories in the industrial area on the capital’s outskirts had to declare a leave for today fearing vandalism, said Rafiqul Islam Sheikh, an additional superintendent of police of Industrial Police.
More than 100 people including workers and police were injured as the angry workers fought pitched battles with the members of law enforcement agencies.
They also vandalised several vehicles.
Witnesses said the law enforcers charged batons and lobbed several hundreds of teargas canisters to bring the situation under control.
The law enforcers also used water canon and fired dozens of rubber bullets to disperse the agitating workers who retaliated with brickbats.
Source: The Daily Star