PM Calls Emergency Evening Meeting on Labour Unrest as Aide Rashed Khan Alleges Instigation by Banned Chhatra League, Jamaat and NCP

The Prime Minister is set to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday evening over the ongoing unrest among garment workers. The decision from the government's top level comes amid continuing protests in industrial belts including Ashulia, Mirpur and Gazipur demanding a minimum wage of Tk 30,000.

Meanwhile, Rashed Khan, political assistant to the Prime Minister, has alleged that leaders and activists of the banned Awami League and its banned student wing Chhatra League have joined the garment workers' movement disguised as workers. He also claimed that leaders and activists of Jamaat and the National Citizen Party (NCP) had been instigating the movement from the very beginning. Rashed Khan made the allegations in a post on his verified Facebook page on Sunday (November 1) afternoon.

In the Facebook post, he wrote that Awami League and Chhatra League leaders and activists had joined the movement in the guise of garment workers, and that the so-called workers' movement in Mirpur was being led by Sajbul Islam, organising secretary of the Jagannath University unit of Chhatra League.

Rashed Khan alleged that Awami League and Chhatra League men posing as workers were involved in setting fire to a police vehicle under the Mirpur-10 metro station and vandalising a police box.

In the post, Rashed Khan also shared a screenshot of a Facebook post by NCP leader Sarjis Alam. On this, he said Sarjis Alam's post was a small example of how the current opposition and the fallen forces had united, and that Jamaat-NCP leaders and activists were instigating the fallen Awami League forces in this way to destabilise the state. Notably, Sarjis Alam's shared post expressed solidarity with the garment workers' ongoing wage movement.

In another Facebook post the same day, Rashed Khan claimed that the workers' movement in Gazipur was also being led by Jagannath University Chhatra League organising secretary Sajbul Islam, and alleged that Jamaat and the NCP were creating opportunities to make the country restless by instigating the movement.

Rashed Khan claimed the labour organisations of these parties were also involved in the movement, and that anti-state forces were engaged in attempts to build many more such movements targeting the month of December.

Separately, on Sunday morning, widespread worker unrest spread through the Ashulia industrial belt in Savar over the demand for a monthly minimum wage of Tk 30,000. Workers of Al-Muslim, Trouser Line and New Age factories in the Nishchintapur area entered their workplaces and began a work stoppage, keeping production suspended. When they later came out onto the streets to demonstrate, workers from nearby garment factories also joined the movement.

At around 12 noon, when protesters blocked the road in front of Ananta Garments in the Narsinghpur area, police tried to disperse them. Chases and counter-chases took place between police and workers, though no casualties were immediately reported.

Faced with the protesting workers' anger, authorities declared a general holiday at at least 50 factories in Ashulia. Ashulia Industrial Police-1 Superintendent of Police Mominul Islam Bhuiyan confirmed the factory closures on Sunday afternoon. He said workers had stopped work and demonstrated since morning, the holiday was declared to prevent the situation from deteriorating, and law enforcement remained active to keep the overall environment under control.

The protesters' main demands are setting the minimum wage at Tk 30,000, preventing layoffs without cause, and immediately stopping the practice of blacklisting workers by listing their names. Khairul Mamun Mintu, legal affairs secretary of the Bangladesh Garments and Sweater Workers Trade Union Centre, said workers had taken to the streets in anger mainly over these three demands. Although a wage board has been formed, workers of various factories are protesting on the streets expecting the demands to be implemented quickly, he said.

Against this backdrop, all eyes are now on the Prime Minister's emergency evening meeting — what decision the government takes to calm the labour unrest will be known after the meeting.