20 hurt in clash at Al-Arafah bank

At least 20 people, including the head of the human resources (HR) department at Al-Arafah Islami Bank, were injured in a clash between the bank's security personnel and recently terminated employees.

The incident occurred around 4:15pm yesterday at the capital's Dainik Bangla intersection.

Among the injured, security guard Shahinur was seriously wounded and admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition. Several others have also been admitted to the hospital.

HR head Amir Hossain is currently undergoing treatment at Square Hospital. Police rescued three deputy managing directors of the bank from the attackers.

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Zubair Bin Rashid, one of the terminated employees, said that a total of 547 employees were dismissed across the country on July 20. Since July 22, they have been staging a sit-in protest demanding reinstatement.

He claimed that the bank's personnel attacked them during their peaceful demonstration.

Inspector Moniruzzaman (Investigation) of Paltan Police Station confirmed that a clash took place between two groups, but no one has been arrested yet.

After the fall of the previous government regime, various regulatory bodies, including Bangladesh Bank, launched investigations into the recruitment process at Al-Arafah Islami Bank and found several irregularities.

Following directives from the relevant authorities to regularise the situation, the bank conducted an evaluation test for 1,414 identified employees.

Of them, 547 who failed the assessment were terminated, according to bank officials.

According to current bank officials, the terminated employees suddenly gathered at the main entrance of Al-Arafah Islami Bank's head office on the morning of July 28, forming a human barrier and behaving aggressively.

Since then, for the past eight days, they have been blocking the main gate from morning till evening.