'Those creating instability will not be treated as protesters,' DIG warns in Ashulia

Md Mostafizur Rahman, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police for the Dhaka range, has said the government has formed a wage board to set workers' wages and the board has already begun its work. Even so, police will not consider those who are creating an unstable situation in the industrial areas as workers' protesters, he said, adding that strict legal action will be taken against such people and the instigators behind them.

He made the remarks on Monday afternoon while answering journalists' questions in front of a factory in the Jamgora area of the Ashulia-Bypass road in Savar, Dhaka, during a visit to review the overall situation in the industrial zone. Dhaka district superintendent of police (SP) Shamima Parvin was present at the time.

DIG Md Mostafizur Rahman said, 'You know the wage board was formed yesterday (Sunday) morning. The wage board has already started its activities. The government is looking at the workers' wage issue legally. Even after that, we do not consider the activities of those creating an unstable situation to be a workers' movement. They are not workers, but creators of disorder in society. Strict legal action will be taken against them.'

Calling on workers to join work without hindrance, he said police are beside the workers. He also urged owners to run their factories normally, and said police are carrying out the responsibility of factory security.

Noting that police also have information about the instigators behind the disorder, Mostafizur Rahman said information about them is being collected. 'No one is above the law. The law will be applied as strictly as the disorder one creates. Many disorderly people have already been arrested. Action is being taken after verifying who is involved and to what extent.'

He also said legal action is being taken over incidents of vandalism and arson at various factories and places in the industrial zone, and that filing of cases, identification of those involved and arrests are continuing.

On the rumour that a worker had died in police firing, the DIG said journalists have been gathering news at various places in Savar-Ashulia for the past two days and their representatives are also in the field. He asked the journalists whether any worker had anywhere died in police firing.

Calling social media a factory for spreading rumours, he said a vested quarter is spreading false information by using garment workers to destabilise the state and trying to mislead the workers. Urging journalists to present the real facts, the DIG said no such incident had happened and the environment in the industrial zone is calm. Those carrying out isolated vandalism and disorder are not workers, he said; they are miscreants and conspirators who want to destroy the garment industry and Bangladesh's economy.

He said legal action is also being taken against those spreading misleading information on social media, and warned that worker leaders or anyone else who creates an unstable situation by direct or indirect instigation or financial support will also be brought under the law.

The DIG said unwanted incidents are happening in some places while schools and colleges are open. While BKSP school was open today, a student was injured by bricks thrown by workers while running to save himself, an incident he said he had seen with his own eyes. Police are also giving importance to students' safety, he said.

Mostafizur Rahman said the spreading of provocative statements from certain social media groups has been under observation for the past four days. He claimed that in these groups, movements at specific places are announced at night for the next day, and the next day the movements take place at those very places. Action will be taken against those spreading rumours and instigation, he said.

Stating that a large number of police personnel have been deployed to control the situation in the industrial zone, the DIG said workers enter the factories in the morning and gradually observe work stoppages; later, when a general holiday is declared at the factory, they come out onto the roads and begin protesting. The DIG, the SP and district police officials are in the field to control the situation, and alongside uniformed police, plainclothes police, APBn and SRB members are also on duty.

Dhaka district SP Shamima Parvin said the Industrial Police, Ashulia police and Savar police have detained disorderly people at various places, but the exact number of detentions cannot be given right now. She said many of those who tried to vandalise vehicles, attacked garment factories, tried to injure workers and threw bricks have been detained. Arrests have been taking place at scattered places, police members are still in the field, and the total number of arrests can be announced after all information is compiled in the evening.