Hall-Mark workers clash with police

Around 50 people were injured after some 15,000 agitating workers of Hall-Mark Group's readymade garment factories in Savar clashed with police yesterday demanding their due salaries.
Witnesses said the workers came out of the factories around 9:30am and headed toward Dhaka-Aricha Highway to put blockades.
An hour later, police intercepted them at Singair-Hemayetpur road, where vehicular movement had come to a halt.
Industrial Police Deputy Director Mohammad Moniruzzaman said, “The workers attacked when police asked them to free the road.
“Afterwards, law enforcers charged batons, fired at least 10 rubber bullets and lobbed five tear gas shells to disperse them.”
The injured were admitted to local hospitals while the Hall-Mark authorities shut the factories for the day.
The agitators said the authorities did not fulfill their commitment to pay the two month's due salary of the employees on October 7.
They said their landlords were asking them to leave while shopkeepers were not selling anything on credit.
Hall-Mark Group Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud and General Manager Tushar Ahmed were arrested by Rapid Action Battalion from the capital's Pallabi on October 7.
The arrests were made on a request from Anti-Corruption Commission, which filed 11 cases with Ramna Police Station on October 4 against 27 officials of Hall-Mark and state-owned Sonali Bank for misappropriating Tk 1,568 crore.