Earlier, top leaders of different trade bodies gathered at an emergency meeting of BGMEA to express their solidarity with its members.

Facing severe property losses due to the attacks, angry garment factory owners said it seems that there is no government in the country and all the incidents happened despite assurance of peace from State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and other senior ministers on the previous day.

Chairing the meeting Acting President of BGMEA Abdus Salam Murshedy lost control over it as the members were repeatedly asking for an immediate solution to the problem.

Some members shouting in the meeting warned that they will be forced to close their factories if the government fails to take necessary actions against the ongoing attacks.

BGMEA leaders drew flak from the agitated factory owners who said the leaders of the association should resign since they failed to take actions against the attacks and to involve the government in the process properly.

Some said as the government failed to save their property, it should provide compensations.

BGMEA leaders alleged that they went to the Prime Minister's Office in the morning but they were not allowed to meet her.

Top leaders of the association had to interject repeatedly in an effort to calm down the angry members but they did not succeed. Finally, the acting president was forced to wrap up the chaotic meeting after having suggestions from the leaders of different trade bodies but short of any specific decision.

Later, the members took to the street at 1:40 pm and gathered at the Sonargaon Hotel intersection obstructing vehicular traffic.

Former BGMEA presidents Redwan Ahmed, Quazi Moniruzzaman, Acting President Abdus Salam Murshedy, BGMEA Director SM Fazlul Hoque and other leaders and members stayed there for half an hour.

Earlier, speaking at the emergency meeting, Anisur Rahman Sinha, former president of BGMEA, stressed the need for bringing an immediate end to the attacks on garment factories, adding that it has become necessary to have discussions with workers' organisations and to work jointly to avoid more damage.

"We have to look into a long-term solution to the problem. We have to talk to the workers to find out whether it is an issue of outburst of the workers' accumulated grievances," he said.

The reality is that the overall situation in the garment sector is much better than the past, Sinha said adding that the improvement in social sector had not been highlighted enough.

Redwan Ahmed said he did not hesitate to take a position against the government in 1996 despite being a ruling party leader. He urged the prime minister and the leader of the opposition to have discussions with their workers' organisations and to take a common stand on the issue.

Quazi Moniruzzaman urged the government to deploy the army to tackle the situation immediately.

MA Momen, president of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) said the attacks on garment factories are not only a bad indication for the RMG sector but also for the national economy.

Terming the incidents very unusual, he underscored the need for finding out the reasons behind the attacks and identifying whether the problem is a deep-rooted one.

The DCCI president urged to form a national body to identify the reasons, adding that it should be neutral, acceptable to all and should include the representatives of workers.

Sayeeful Islam, former president of DCCI, said business leaders need to be united to face the situation and all trade bodies should make a joint statement about the present situation.

AK Azad, president of Bangladesh Chamber of Industries, said the way the media presented the issue made the workers angrier. Sitting with top political leaders and finding a way out has become imperative, he said.

CHAMBER LEADERS' VERSION Some factory owners were crying and shouting how they have lost millions of dollars in products ready for shipment.

With the factory owners gathering, the BGMEA office turned into a place of grief and sorrow expressed in outbursts of anger. Garment factory owners chanted slogans demanding that the government tackles the situation immediately.

In the afternoon, business leaders from different chambers came to the BGMEA office to express their solidarity with the association leaders.

They urged the government to take immediate steps to save the country's highest foreign exchange earning sector.

Latifur Rahman, president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) said it is very natural to have disputes between workers and owners. But the incidents that took place during the last two days are not normal. The real reason of why the workers became violent is not clear, he said.

Any dispute between workers and owners should be solved at a table, he added.

He said, "It could be a conspiracy against our economic growth, which has been growing for the last few years."

He urged the government to ensure law and order so businesses could operate in a peaceful environment.

Mahbubur Rahman, president of International Chamber of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB), said it is not a workers' unrest. "It's a calculated mechanism against our growing garments industry."

The demonstrators destroyed not only garment factories but also textile mills, medicine shops, packaging factories and dying factories, which proves that it is a planned formula to destroy the country's industries, he said. A deep conspiracy could be lurking behind the mechanism, he alleged.

He urged all business leaders to come forward to save the garment industry.

Abdul Awal Mintoo, former president of FBCCI said, "It is a planned incident." He said it is an industry which has to maintain buyers' requirements and lead time. In this situation government should take proper initiatives, he added.

Former president of MCCI Kutub Uddin Ahmed urged the government to give proper compensations to the factory owners whose factories have been damaged.

BGMEA'S VERSION
A highly placed BGMEA leader requesting anonymity said a number of workers' forums like Jatiya Garments Sramik Kalyan Federation, Garments Sramik Oikya Forum, Sramik Sangram Parishad, Garments Sramik Sangram Parishad, and Garments Sramik Trade Union Kendra patronised the violence.

He said leaders of these organisations were present at the scenes and led the rampages. He also guessed that the leaders of these organisations could be patronised by internal or external powers.

In a rough estimate, BGMEA Vice-president (Finance) Shahadat Hossain Chowdhury Arun said 300 factories including 21 factories in Savar EPZ were damaged during the two-day violence. The total loss of the garment industry is around Tk 400 crore, he claimed.

BGMEA BOARD MEETING'S DECISION
An emergency board meeting of BGMEA presided over by its Acting President Abdus Salam Murshedy yesterday decided to call an emergency general meeting (EGM) at 11:30am today. The meeting will be held in the Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (BIAM) auditorium. BGMEA leaders urged all garment industry stockholders to be present at the meeting.

Following the board meeting Murshedy said, "We will announce our programmes after discussing with all stockholders in the EGM."

He said all garment factories will run as usual from today. "But if further incidents occur we will be forced to call for tough programmes," he said. He also threatened to shutdown all garment factories indefinitely if the authorities fail to calm the situation.

MEETING WITH LGRD MINISTER
A number of BGMEA leaders met LGRD Minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan yesterday and asked him to do something about the violence. The minister assured them of tackling the matter within an hour but BGMEA leaders alleged that even after the minister's assurance violence went on.

BKMEA NEWS BRIEFING
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) leaders in a news briefing yesterday threatened to shutdown their factories unless the ongoing violence is contained by today.

"We will have an emergency meeting tomorrow (today) where we will decide on what to do if the situation does not improve. If needed we might shutdown our factories," said BKMEA President Fazlul Haque at the briefing after an emergency meeting in the association's Dhaka office.

The knitwear manufacturers also sought deployment of the army at different garment industry hubs like Savar, Gazipur, Ashulia, Mirpur, Tejgaon, Mohakhali and Narayanganj.

They accused intelligence agencies of failure to predict the spate of violence. "After analysing some incidents we hinted to the intelligence agencies that something fishy was going on and requested them to take necessary steps. But they failed and could not find who were the culprits involved," the BKMEA chief said.

Terming the attackers as outsiders, he said the situation is so awful that the attackers are announcing the time in advance when they will set a factory on fire. In case of Universal Knitting, Haque said the attackers threatened the owner over the phone that they would set fire to the factory and after an hour and a half they carried it out.

"Even though we informed the police and fire department just after the phone call the factory could not be saved," he said.

On security measures he said, "Steps taken by the government were not enough and also did not work."

He feared the RMG sector will face an approximately Tk 1,000 crore loss and urged the media to present correct information on the situation.