Torchlight procession to protest police attack on workers
Leftist student organizations have held a torchlight procession to protest the police attack on workers and demand immediate payment of workers’ due allowances and Eid bonuses.
The procession started in front of the Raju Sculpture of Dhaka University on Tuesday evening and ended in front of the Labor Building. After that, they held a short rally there.
During the procession, they raised slogans like ‘Why attack the movement, the administration wants an answer’, ‘Fight, fight, fight, I want to live by fighting’; ‘Why is my brother injured, the administration wants an answer’; ‘Why is my brother injured, the administration wants an answer’.
At the short rally, Democratic Student Council President Sayedul Haque Nishan said that the police have no concern about the fact that the workers are not being paid their salaries, yet the police attacked them and detained them.
At the rally, Jabir Ahmed, General Secretary of Revolutionary Student Alliance, said that every year before Eid, workers are seen protesting in different places demanding their wages. Such incidents do not happen to any other class of people in Bangladesh. The salaries of any government official or employee are never withheld. The workers who worked hard to build this Bangladesh for months have their salaries withheld for months.
Jabir Ahmed demanded that the interim government bring the policemen who attacked them to justice and immediately pay the workers’ arrears.
The torch procession also included the Chhatra Union, Chhatra Council, and Samajtantrik Chhatra Front.
It is worth noting that this morning, workers from several garment factories in Gazipur first went to the Labor Building with various demands, including three months’ arrears of salary, Eid bonus, and maternity leave money. From there, they left for the Secretariat around noon. When the workers’ procession reached the road leading to the Secretariat in the Press Club area, the police prevented them from going. At one stage, the police dispersed them by beating them with batons. Later, when the agitated workers threw bricks at the police, the police fired sound grenades and tear gas shells to disperse them. Some workers were injured in the incident, but their identities could not be identified.
