More than 500 tea growers and 250 workers of North Bengal Central Tea Industries in Panchagarh district are frustrated as the factory closed down following extortion threats on Friday.
A complaint was filed in this connection, said workers of the factory.
According to the written complaint and locals, a local man named Abdul Hamid had been trying to extort money out of the factory owners for the last couple of months. On Thursday, Hamid and his 10/12 associates came to the factory and demanded huge amount of money as extortion. When the authorities refused to pay, they locked the main gate of the factory. They also tried to intimidate the owners and workers of the factory.
Following the incident, the factory owners shut down the factory on Friday.
Hundreds of small tea growers in the district became distressed for not being able to sell tea leaves to the factory in due time.
Yesterday the farmers gathered in front of factory and demanded the factory be opened right away.
Manager of North Bengal Tea Industries Md Abdur Razzaque told the Dhaka Tribune: “Abdul Hamid put a lock on the main gate of the factory as we refused to pay extortion money. Police came and removed the lock after we informed them, however, Hamid continued to threaten us. So to ensure security, we closed down the factory.”
Hamid said: “I own a piece of land beside the factory on which the employees of the factory used to dump wastes. I told them several times for not to do so, but my words fell on deaf ears. On Thursday I went to tell them the same thing but they did not listen to me. So I put a lock on the main gate from outside. Now, they are filing a case of extortion just to grab my land.”
