Schoolchildren trapped on Mirpur roads on a fourth day of clashes, as the Mirpur-11 metro station is closed

Clashes and a road blockade took place in the capital’s Mirpur on Tuesday (3 November) around the garment workers’ movement, now on its fourth consecutive day. Traffic came to a halt and the Mirpur-11 metro rail station was kept temporarily closed.

Because of the clashes, countless students were trapped on the roads on their way home after school ended. Small children watched the confrontation anxiously through vehicle windows. The sounds of sound grenades and tear gas shells all around, and the clashes between police and protesters, left the children terrified. Alongside ordinary people, parents also suffered severely.

On the ground, countless children in school uniforms were seen stuck in vehicles on the main road beneath the Mirpur-11 metro rail station. Anxiety and fear were visible on the faces of the children looking out through the windows.

With the loud sounds of sound grenades every few moments, people running, shouting and smoke, the children became frightened. Some were crying, while others clung to their parents. Parents tried to keep their children safe, but with the clashes and traffic at a standstill, they could not find a way home.

Students were seen stuck in school buses, vans and rickshaws on various roads in Mirpur. Working people, patients and other passengers who had gone out for various needs also suffered after being trapped in vehicles for a long time.

Eyewitnesses said the garment workers’ movement has been under way in different areas of Mirpur since Saturday, demanding an increase in the minimum wage. Continuing that movement, workers from different factories took to the streets with sticks on Tuesday morning as well.

At around 9am, protesters began demonstrating by blockading the road in the Mirpur-11 area. When police obstructed them, the situation heated up. At one stage the protesters threw brickbats at the police, and clashes spread between the two sides.

As the situation deteriorated, the Mirpur-11 metro rail station was temporarily closed in the morning for the safety of passengers and the station. The MRT Police control room said trains would not stop and passengers would not be able to board or alight at the station until the situation returned to normal.

After the situation came somewhat under control in the afternoon, Touhidul Arif, deputy commissioner of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s POM division, spoke to journalists. He said there was another purpose behind the movement.

Touhidul Arif said that at around 9am on Tuesday, some miscreants had tried to create trouble by barricading the road in the Mirpur-11 area. He said police had suppressed the incident and were becoming stricter. In his words, those now on the streets are not real garment workers or labourers in any sense; those now in the field are miscreants who have come with a purpose.

The deputy commissioner added that real garment workers had gone home after their holiday or at the end of work, or were working in the factories. He said who was instigating the movement from behind it, and with what purpose ordinary people and children were being held hostage through sabotage, would be investigated, and detailed legal action would be taken in due course.