The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has blamed the law enforcement agencies and the government for their failure and unwillingness to prevent the recent wave of subversive activities against the sector, including Friday’s arson attack on the garment factories of Standard Group in Gazipur.
The apparel makers’ trade body made the comments on Saturday at a press conference held in the wake of the incident, which it alleged was carried out by a group of unruly workers and people with an interest in damaging the sector.
“The government has to ensure security so we can run our factories,” said BGMEA President Atiqul Islam, who demanded new laws to bring the criminals involved in all such incidents to book.
“If the government could have taken punitive actions against the masterminds behind all these incidents, there would have been no recurrence of such sabotage,” he said.
The BGMEA president told the media that there was obviously a lack of willingness from the government to identify the instigators.
“We had informed the law enforcement agencies about Balu Math, where the conspirators had gathered and hatched plans, but they did not take any notice,” he said.
The owners of the Standard Group now has to bear a Tk12bn loss, as all their factories in the area were burnt down, Islam said.
Meanwhile, a group of RMG owners has blamed India for the recent violence in the country’s apparel industry. They said India wants to grab our market share by destabilising the sector through creating anarchy through their agents. They also argued that there were no incidents in the RMG factories owned by Indian citizens.
“Is there any law or justice in this country? If there is, I want justice and punishment to come to those who shattered my dreams by torching my factories,” said Mosharraf Hussain, owner and managing director of the Standard Group.
He demanded a judicial investigation to identify those who were behind the arson.
Hussain demanded a solution from the government, as he is not in a position to pay off bank loans, LCs and workers’ salaries.
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Mosharraf Hussain said:“The attack was pre-planned and carried out by trained goons, they set fire to key points as per the factory’s layout plans. The criminals also broke into lockers where cash was kept.
“I had opened letter of credits [LC] worth Tk4bn and imported machineries, who will take responsibilitiesfor paying these off,” said Mosharraf.
“I would not even be able to place an order as banks will not allow me to do so.”
Meanwhile, BGMEA former president Abdus Salam Murshedy said: “This is not labour unrest, not a protest for wage hikes, it is a sabotage to behead the highest foreign currency earning sector.”
It is the first episode of the drama, which is being staged to destabilise the RMG sector, said Salam. He added that people who wanted to damage the sector had earlier tried to do the same at the Hamim Group, Islam group and GSM group, but had failed.
He urged the government and law enforcement agencies to foil such evil plans.
Earlier on Friday, following a rumour of the deaths of two fellow employees, workers set fire to three buildings of Standard Group’s garment factory in the Konabari industrial area of Gazipur.