Workers of Uttara EPZ went to work in the morning but they left the factories at about 9:00am and blocked the Nilphamari-Sayedpur-Dhaka highway demanding withdrawal of the two cases filed against 11 workers of Uttara Sweater Manufacturing Company Limited, the biggest unit at the EPZ.
They also demanded release of nine arrested workers and termination of Golam Mostafa, an official of the sweater company, bringing allegation that Mostafa used to harass the female workers of the factory.
On information, police from Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Bogra, Dinajpur and Rangpur rushed to the spot and charged batons, fire teargas shells and rubber bullets on the workers to disperse them.
At one stage, people of local villages joined them and started pelting brick chips on the law enforcers, injuring at least 15 people and seven policemen.
Officer-in-charge of Nilphamari Sadar Police Station Nurul Islam was among the injured cops.
Chase and counter-chase were taking place between them till filling of their report at about 12:15pm.
Officials of Diaz Spinning and Knitting Limited and Evergreen Products Factory Limited filed the two cases under Speedy Trial Act on January 2 this year and December 19, 2010 respectively against 11 workers on charge of ransacking the factories and obstructing others from attending work.
Later, police arrested the 11 accused but two of them secured bail later.
On January 5, several thousand workers of Uttara EPZ observed sit-in in front of the deputy commissioner's (DC) office demanding the same.
They also submitted a memorandum to the DC of Nilphamari on December 19.
-Daily Star, Thu, 20/01/2011
If you liked the post then,
Click here to Join us for FREE email updates from "www.apparelmakers.org", so that you do not miss out anything that can be valuable to you and your business!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment