Three were killed and 225 injured as the police clashed with apparel workers, out on demonstrations for the second consecutive day on Sunday in Chittagong, Dhaka and on its outskirts rallying for wages in the new structure, which came into effect on November 1.
About 90 vehicles and several factories were also vandalised and ransacked during the clashes.
All the factories in the Chittagong export processing zone suspended production for the day after the clashes in which three were killed and about a hundred were wounded.
The Chittagong Metropolitan Police commissioner said three had been killed during the clashes.
An apparel worker, Ruhi Das, 45, died of a cardiac arrest in front of the CEPZ gate around 1:00pm during the clashes.
The Chittagong Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (port), Kushum Dewan, said a rickshaw puller identified as Ariful Hoque died during the clashes after he had been wounded with stones.
The body was sent to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
Sources in the Chittagong hospital said two more bodies had been taken to the morgue from the spots.
The identities of them, however, could not be established but the workers out on demonstrations claimed that the deceased were their fellows. All the three bodies had marks of bullet injuries.
In Dhaka, 100 people, including 20 policemen, were injured and 50 vehicles were vandalised and two cars were set on fire during clashes between the police and the workers, who blocked the Bishwa Road at Khilkhet and Kuril.
Twenty-five were injured and eight vehicles vandalised at Rupganj in Narayanganj in clashes between the police and workers. The workers of four apparel factories at Ashulia in Dhaka went on strike.
Workers of apparel factories in different places went out on demonstrations on Saturday demanding that they should be paid in keeping with the new wage structure.
The home minister, Sahara Khatun, on Sunday said that the government would investigate the incidents of labour unrest.
After a meeting with the representatives of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association at the secretariat, the home minister warned the workers of tough action if they took law in their hands.
The labour and employment minister, Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, on the day also warned of legal action against anyone ‘creating anarchy’ in the apparel sector.
After a meeting with a BGMEA delegation, he told reporters that he had assured the workers of reviewing their minimum wage and urged them to refrain from vandalism.
He said the situation went out of control in Chittagong and a rickshaw-puller died when he was caught in the clashes. Now the situation is now normal, he said.
He also held a meeting with the ruling party-backed Sramik League general secretary.
Korea-based apparel manufacturing group Youngone Corporation, whose workers rallied in Chittagong, claimed that groups of outsiders had instigated workers in the EPZ factories and carried out vandalism there.
The corporation’s chairman Kihak Sung, also the president of the BEPZA Investors’ Association, said that the Youngone management reviewed the wages of individual workers in its factories in the Chittagong export processing zone on December 6, strictly following the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority guidelines on re-fixation of minimum wages.
The New Age office in Chittagong said three were killed and more than 100, including police personnel and journalists, were wounded during the clashes between the lawmen and CEPZ factory workers.
The police fired more than 500 rounds and more than 100 teargas shells to disperse the workers, who damaged at least 30 vehicles and vandalised 10 factories on the stretch between the CEPZ gate and the Saltgola crossing.
According to CEPZ sources, more than 35,000 workers of 11 factories of Youngone rallied as they found their factories closed when went to join work about 8:00am.
The Youngone workers started rallying in protest at unscheduled closure of the factories, the sources said, adding that workers of other factories had also joined them forcing the authorities to announce a holiday in all the factories in the export processing zone.
The sources said the workers had gone out of the zone and started vandalising vehicles and roadside installations, which suspended traffic on the road as the police tried to disperse the demonstrators.
Industrial police assistant superintendent Rezaul Mashud, however, said the workers had started pelting the police with stones at one point which forced the lawmen to fire. At least 30 people were arrested during the clashes.
He also said they had fired more than 500 rounds and more than 100 teargas shells during the clashes, which continued till 1:30pm.
Eight people — Al Amin, 28, Abu Sayed, 28, Mohammed Rashid, 26, Naser Ahmed, 30, Hafizur, 25, and Monir, 28, workers of the Youngone Group, Abul Kashem, 26, worker of the Chittagong Fashion Limited, and Abul Kashem, a shop employee at the Bay Sholling Centre — were being treated in Chittagong Medical College Hospital with bullet wounds.
Four others — police sergeant Mahbub, constables Mahiuddin and Nur Jamal and worker of the GM Fashion Limited Kalam Mia, 28 — were also being treated in the hospital with injuries of different sorts.
Sources in the Chittagong Port Hospital said they had referred two others — Hamidul, 25, and Bashir, 25, with critical bullet wounds — to Chittagong Medical College Hospital. The two were, however, not found there.
Hasan Ferdous, bureau chief of the daily Sangbad, Rashed Mahmud, senior photographer of Prothom Alo, Kutub Uddin, photographer of Inquilab, and Ali Haider, staff reporter of Suprabhat Bangladesh, were wounded during the clashes.
The workers manhandled the local lawmaker MA Latif forcing him to take shelter in a physician’s chamber near Barrister Sultan Ahmed College when he went to visit the place about 12:15pm.
The workers vandalised the chamber of Dr AMD Shamshul Alam as they asked him to hand over the lawmaker to them. The police rescued the lawmaker about 1:00pm.
The Youngone authorities closed all their factories in the export processing zone for an indefinite period after the workers’ protest at disproportionate increase in wages of senior and junior workers on Saturday night.
The BEPZA chairman Zamil Ahmed Khan, CEPZ general manager Abdur Rashid, former Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, also the city unit Awami League president, ruling party lawmaker MA Latif and CMP commissioner Abul Kashem held a meeting at the CEPZ building after the clashes in the afternoon.
The BEPZA chairman at a briefing after the meeting said they had decided to resume operation in all factories in the CEPZ but those of Youngone by Monday morning.
‘The Youngone factories will need more time to resume operation as all of these have been damaged,’ he added.
The CMP commissioner also said 56 policemen had sustained injuries during the clash. ‘Seven policemen have been admitted to hospital in a critical condition.’
In Dhaka, 100 people, including 20 policemen, were injured, 50 vehicles damage, two cars set on fire and six workers were arrested during the clashes at Kuril.
The police and witnesses said several thousand workers of the factories owned by the NASA Group went out on demonstrations blocking the Bishwa Road at Khilkhet and Kuril about 8:30am.
The police rushed to the place and charged at the workers with truncheons and the workers started pelting the lawmen with stones. The clashes continued for an hour beginning about 9:00am.
The workers set fire to vehicles, including a microbus, and damaged 50 cars and buses which got stranded on the road stretch, witnesses said.
A huge contingent of police and Rapid Action Battalion personnel later reached the place and attacked the workers. Many of the workers were injured, local people and the police said.
Fire Service and Civil Defence personnel put out the flames but the cars were destroyed, the police and witnesses said.
The Khilkhet police officer-in-charge, Shamim Hossain, said they had so far arrested six people on charges of vandalism.
He said the police had filed a case against 1,500 unnamed people on charges of vandalism of public property and setting fire to cars.
The New Age correspondent at Savar said several hundred workers of five apparel factories went on a wildcat strike on the day. Additional lawmen have been deployed in the area.
The factories are Swedish Hop Lun (BD) Limited and Alfa Packaging Industry Limited in the old zone of the Dhaka export processing zone, Meddler Apparels Limited at Narasinghapur and Starling Creation at Jamgora.
The police and factory sources said 4,800 workers of Hop Lun went out of the factory in the morning and rallied there.
A large number of law enforcers stopped the workers and they went back into the factory. But they did not join in work.
The BEPZA general manager, Ashraful Kabir, said, ‘The workers rallied for some demands and we asked them to discuss the matter.’
Hop Lun manager Abdullah Al Amin Khan said the factory might be closed if the situation would not improve.
The factories which were shut in a few days in the area were yet to start production.
News agency bdnews24.com said at least 25 people were injured in police- worker clashes at Rupganj.
The police said workers of the Robin Text BD Limited at Bhulta Gauchhia under Rupganj went out on demonstrations on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway, causing traffic disruption from 9:00am. The workers damaged seven to eight vehicles.
The Rupganj police officer-in-charge, Forkan Shikder, said they had arrested five people and fired 38 round and 15 teargas shells to disperse the protesters, who took to the streets after their factory had been closed for an indefinite period. The workers also vandalised the factory’s daycare unit. At least 25 people injured in the clashes.
Workers said a meeting with the authorities was scheduled for Sunday after Saturday’s unrest. ‘Instead of holding the meeting, the authorities closed the factory,’ a worker said.
The factory’s managing director Shakhawat Hossain Mollah said the factory had been closed because of deteriorating working condition after Saturday’s incident.
