Demo for salary hike: Garment workers vandalise AL office, torch bikes in Mirpur

Garment workers today blocked roads in Mirpur, vandalised a ward-level Awami League office and torched two motorcycles of party activists during their protest -- for the fourth consecutive day --for salary hike and other demands. 

With sticks and machetes, the demonstrators ransacked the AL office of unit 9 at ward-4, located opposite Kafrul Police Station, witnesses said.

Police could not intervene as the incident involved several hundred workers. They also vandalised a nearby restaurant and several vehicles on the street, witnesses and protesters said.

Protesting RMG workers attacked the AL office as some leaders and activists of local Swechchasebak League allegedly beat up several of them during their demonstration yesterday, they said.

Asked about it, Hafizur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station, admitted that the AL office was ransacked.

There were few police personnel in the police station when the attack took place, he said, adding that additional police rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control later on.

The OC, however, said no workers were beaten up yesterday.

The clash between the workers and Swechchasebak League leaders took place as the party men protested when the workers tore off some posters, he said. 

Billal Hossain, who runs the restaurant that was vandalised, said the workers left their workplace and started protesting around 9:00am and but around 11:00am they attacked the party office and his restaurant.

Some party men stood nearby but they could not stop them, he said.

The protestors blocked several roads during their three-hour protest, resulting in traffic jam in the area.

The workers said they would take to the street again with the demand of salary hike as their house rent and daily expenditure have gone up recently.