18 injured as RMG workers clash with police in Gazipur
At least 18 persons, including a police sub-inspector, were injured when agitated workers of a garment factory in Gazipur clashed with police yesterday.
The workers were staging a demonstration, demanding payment of their arrear salary and allowances. The workers and police clashed after several rounds of chase and counter-chase.
Police brought the situation under control by opening 31 rounds of fire from shotgun and 22 tear gas canisters.
The protesting workers damaged doors and windows of the factory. They also damaged several vehicles.
According to Gazipur Industrial Area Police Inspector Amjad Hossain, agitating workers and locals, five months' salary of the staff and September salary of the workers remained unpaid at Intramex factory in Laxmipura area of Gazipur. The factory owners did not pay the arrears despite assuring to do so several times.
As factory owners made a commitment to pay the workers' salary for September on October 14 and once again failed, tension spread among the workers and they started agitating while abstaining from work.
Yesterday, the workers again went to the factory and the owners once more pledged to pay the arrears on October 24. But workers did not agree and demanded payment yesterday.
At one stage the workers came out of the factory and tried to take position on Dhaka-Gazipur highway. Police intercepted them and a chase-counter chase ensued.
Gazipur Sadar Thana SI Bashir Ahmed and at least 17 others, including quality controller of the factory Abdul Alim, were injured in the clash. The injured received treatment at Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital.
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