Police Allege Sabotage Behind Garment Workers' Wage Movement as 49 Are Held in Dhaka and Gazipur

Police have alleged planned sabotage behind the ongoing movement by garment workers demanding a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka. Law enforcement agencies claimed that leaders and activists of the banned Awami League and its affiliated organisations were involved in arson attacks, assaults and vandalism targeting police vehicles and a police box in Mirpur in the capital and in Gazipur.

In connection with the incidents, police arrested or detained 49 people in Dhaka and Gazipur on Sunday. Of them, 19 were detained from different areas of Mirpur, while 30 people, including nine leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliates, were arrested in Gazipur on allegations of incitement and involvement in violence during the workers' movement.

Of the 19 detained in Mirpur, 11 were held by the Detective Branch (DB) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police and the other eight by station police, said Hasan Mohammad Naser Rikabdar, deputy commissioner of the police's Mirpur Division.

Police claimed that one side had used the workers' legitimate movement to carry out planned violence and sabotage, and that several of those detained in Mirpur were linked to the Awami League and its affiliated organisations.

The DB said several of the detainees are followers of former member of parliament Elias Mollah, and that some of them hold party posts. Police alleged that Alif Mollah organised more than a hundred people and sent them into the workers' movement, and that a section of them was involved in setting a police vehicle on fire and in vandalism.

In Kaliakair, Gazipur, nine leaders and activists of the Awami League and its affiliates were arrested on allegations of involvement in plans for incitement, vandalism and arson during the workers' movement. They were arrested in raids in different parts of the upazila at dawn, according to sources at Kaliakair police station, the Industrial Police and Gazipur Metropolitan Police.

Police said those arrested include the office secretary of the Awami League's Kaliakair upazila unit, a former general secretary of the Sramik League, a former Chhatra League leader, and several leaders and activists of the Krishak League and Jubo League.

Shahidul Islam, officer-in-charge of Kaliakair police station, said the nine were arrested not for taking part in the workers' movement but on allegations of involvement in terrorist activities.

Gazi Jasim Uddin, chief of the Industrial Police and an additional inspector general of police, said a third party was suspected of instigating the garment workers' movement. He said the government had already formed a wage board considering the workers' demands, and that with violent protests continuing in different areas despite that, whether another side was instigating the movement was being examined.

Police said law enforcement agencies were working to keep the situation under control and to ensure the safety of workers and industrial factories.