Clash at Al-Arafah Islami Bank leaves around 20 injured

At least 20 people, including the head of human resources (HR) 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 today at the Dainik Bangla intersection.

Among the injured, security guard Shahinur was seriously wounded and admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition.

HR Head Amir Hossain is currently undergoing treatment at Square Hospital. Police rescued three Deputy Managing Directors (DMDs) of the bank from the attackers.

The injured include the HR head, security guard Shahinur, Liton (25), Elias (38), Fahim (19), Rocky Hossain (26), Tofayel (32), Nur Alam (42), Arif (25), Zakir Hossain (25), Sagor (29), Lutfor, Faruk, and Sohel.

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On the other hand, terminated employees Nurul Akib (27), Arifa Khatun (27), Mukta Akter (29), Naeemuddin (30), and Rezaul Karim (30) were also injured and received treatment at Dhaka Medical College.

Zubair Bin Rashid, leader 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.