3 police vehicles set on fire in Gazipur amid garment workers’ protests

Protesters in Gazipur vandalised and set fire to three police vehicles on Monday amid demonstrations by garment workers over wages and other benefits.

The incident took place at around noon in the Naojor area of Gazipur city, said Amzad Hossain, superintendent of Gazipur Industrial Police.

He said workers had continued demonstrations in different areas on Monday. More than 150 factories had declared holidays because of the unrest. Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), district police, metropolitan police and industrial police were working together to bring the situation under control.

Local residents said workers from the affected factories had taken up positions at several points along the highways and staged demonstrations. Police and BGB personnel clashed with workers several times while attempting to disperse them, with incidents of chasing and counter-chasing also reported.

From Monday morning (2 November), workers blocked the Dhaka–Tangail Highway and began demonstrations in the Safipur, Palli Bidyut and Chandra areas.

At around 11am, police and BGB personnel moved to disperse the protesters. One BGB member was injured after being struck by a brick thrown by demonstrators.

Meanwhile, a Somoy TV reporter and camera operator were attacked while covering the protests, and their camera was vandalised. An SA TV camera operator also sustained an injury to the leg during the incident.