A police van and an army jeep were set on fire during clashes between readymade garment workers and members of law enforcement agencies during RMG workers’ demonstration in the capital’s Mirpur area Thursday morning.
Two teenage RMG workers also sustained bullet injuries during the clashes as the members of the security agencies allegedly opened fire on protesters during the clashes that occurred on Mirpur 14 – Kachukhet road.
The injured workers, Md Al-Amin, 18, and Jhuma Akter, 15, were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet injuries, said DMCH police outpost in-charge Md Faruk.
Al Amin sustained bullet injuries on his shoulder and Jhuma received a bullet in her right leg. They work as sewing operators at Centex Fashion in Mirpur, according to their families and fellow workers. Â
Juhuma’s elder sister Morzina Begum said that her sister sustained bullet injuries in her right leg while she was on her way to returning home.
Police and witnesses said that the demonstration and clashes continued between 8:30am and 11:00am over a dispute between the management and the workers of Creative Designers Ltd.
They said that several hundred RMG workers took to the streets at about 8:30am and began to throw brickbats at nearby factories and urged the workers of those factories to join the protests.
The workers locked in a clash with the police when the latter asked the protesters to leave the place and, in response, the workers began to throw brickbats at the law enforcers.
The factory management said that the members of the law enforcement agencies had been visiting and monitoring the factory workers’ agitation for the past few days.
The workers alleged that the factory line chief Md Kabir and his brother-in-law had tortured a number of workers, including a female, outside the factory a couple of weeks ago but the management denied the allegations.
Fire Service and Civil Defence station officer Talha Bin Jashim said that they came to know about setting fire to an army vehicle and a human hauler at about 9:50am and two firefighting units reached the spot within 15 minutes.
Police lobbed teargas shells and opened fire to disperse the protesters, witnesses said.
Vasantek police station officer-in-charge Faisal Ahmed said that police did not open any fire, but the Army opened fire in the air to disperse the protesters.
‘I am not aware of anyone injured in the incident. Some police members were hurt as protesters threw brickbats at them,’ he said in the afternoon.
He said that the situation was then under control.
When contacted over the phone in the afternoon, the Inter Service Public Relations Directorate declined to make any comment on setting fire to an army vehicle and army opening fire on protesters.
The directorate said that they would issue a press release later.
In the evening, the ISPR in a press release said that the Bangladesh Army-led Industrial Security Taskforce had rescued garment workers, managing body members and owners in 136 drives, including 97 in Savar-Ashulia, 33 in Gazipur and six in Naraynganj since August 9.
The Taskforce also arrested 335 miscreants and handed them over to different police stations, said the ISPR release without mentioning anything specific about the Mirpur incident. Â
 Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s deputy commissioner for Mirpur Division, Md Makhsudur Rahman, said that workers of Creative Designers Limited had been trying to destabilise the environment for the past seven days and the number of workers would not be more than 400.
‘Some workers of Creative Designers Ltd threw brickbats at other factories and provoked them to join their protests. We have primarily assumed some outsiders intruded in the protest and instigated the workers as they did not have any specific demand,’ he said.
He said that the police would take steps against the miscreants who had set fire to army and police vehicles and thrown brickbats at the members of the law enforcement agencies.
A large number of members of the Army, the police and the Rapid Action Battalion were deployed in the Kafrul, Mirpur-14 and Kochukhet areas in the afternoon.
Army personnel also took positions with the armoured personnel carriers in Kafrul and Mirpur-14 areas.
The police said that the owners of the Creative Designers Ltd dismissed the job of the accused supervisor amid the protesters› demand but the workers again started demanding to hand over the supervisor to them and began fresh protests.
The factory owner closed the factory on Wednesday and the protest began on Thursday morning.
Creative Designers Ltd managing director Tareq Sarker said that although he had dismissed the accused line chief Kabir, the workers demanded to hand over him to them.
‘As a citizen of the country, I cannot support mob justice,’ he added.
Tareq said that he did not get any proof of beating the workers, including a female.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association administer Md Anwar Hossain said that the 10-member support committee was holding a meeting over the Mirpur incident.
‘I cannot say anything more right now,’ he said.
Former BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim, also one of the members of the support committee, could not be reached over the phone as his phone was found switched off.