Ashulia Garment Workers Block Road Again for Pay Rise, Most Factories Closed: Traffic Later Returns to Normal

Garment workers from several factories in Ashulia continued their work stoppage and protests on Sunday, November 1, over demands including a pay rise. Most factories in the area declared a holiday to bring the situation under control.

On Sunday morning, workers of important factories including Knit Asia, Al-Muslim, Sabiha Apparels, Trouser Line and S21 first began a work stoppage at their own workplaces.

As the day progressed, workers in Norsinghpur and surrounding areas stopped work and came outside.

After 11:30am, workers took position in the Unique, Norsinghpur area of the Abdullahpur-Baipail road. Because of the workers' road position, all traffic on the Abdullahpur-Baipail highway stopped. Ordinary passengers and long-distance vehicle passengers suffered as a result.

According to the latest information, almost all factories have declared a holiday from Baroipara to the EPZ on the Nabinnagar-Chandra highway, including factories outside the EPZ area, and in Baipail, Unique, Jamgora, Norsinghpur and Zirobo areas. However, the situation in the Savar area remained normal as on other days.

A senior Dhaka district police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said most factories were forced to declare a holiday today in view of the situation. Even where some factories remained open, workers came and forced them to declare a holiday. Additional police and law enforcement members were on alert at the scene and surrounding areas to keep the law and order situation normal and avoid untoward incidents.

Sohel Ahmed, additional superintendent of Industrial Police-1 (Ops and Intelligence), said sufficient force had been deployed from 6am and the overall situation was good. Around 10:30am, some workers gathered in front of Sharmin over the closure of the Knit Asia factory, but the workers were peaceful and police played a responsible role to calm the situation.

Sohel Ahmed said that when the authorities at one stage also declared Sharmin Garments closed, the workers left for their respective destinations and the road was cleared.

Later, when some scattered workers of Ananta Garments threw brickbats and tried to take to the road, police went to the scene and spoke with them. As the factory authorities had earlier declared Ananta Garments closed, after explaining this the scattered workers left peacefully for their destinations.

Additional Superintendent Sohel Ahmed also said police handled the situation with patience to avoid untoward incidents and keep traffic normal. At present, the law and order situation in the industrial area is completely normal and traffic is also normal.

However, he said the exact number of factories that declared a holiday today could be confirmed after contacting the control room.