RMG workers go on rampage after accident

Agitating garment workers yesterday torched two trucks, damaged several vehicles and barricaded the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway following an accident that left two garment workers and a rickshaw puller dead on Boardbazar highway in Gazipur.
The deceased were Khadiza, 28, Nilima Akhter, 24 and Jewel, the rickshaw puller.
Police said Khadiza and Nilima worked in Southern Clothing Factory at Boardbazar.
Officer-in-charge (OC) Abdur Rashid of Gazipur Police Station said the accident took place when a Tongi bound brick laden truck rammed a rickshaw leaving the victims critically injured. They died on the way to Gazipur Sadar Hospital, added police sources.
Locals captured the killer truck and set it on fire. Later they started vandalising vehicles on the highway, police said.
As the news spread, over three hundred agitating garment workers from different factories came out and joined the rampage on the highway leaving at least 15 buses wrecked and two trucks charred, locals and police said.
Gazipur Sadar fire fighters reached the spot and doused the two blazing trucks.
During the rampage the demonstrators also put barricade on the highway from around 8:15am, sources said.
OC Rashid said the agitating workers and locals lifted the hour-long barricade on assurance of punitive measures against truck drivers.
The driver of the truck, however, managed to escape the scene, he added.