A case has been filed against around 800 people, including nine named individuals, over vandalism, arson and the death of a worker during protests for an increase in wages of readymade garment workers in Gazipur.
Golzar Hossain, a security worker at ABM Fashion Limited in Konabari, filed the case at Konabari police station late on Tuesday, Konabari police station OC KM Ashraf Hossain said on Thursday morning, before confirming the arrest of nine people so far.
The deceased garment worker, Emran Hossain, 32, hailing from Tumbaria village of Kasba upazila of Comilla, worked at ABM Fashion Limited and lived in a rented house near it.
The arrested persons are Rifat, 19, Noor Hossain, 18, Mahidul Islam, 20, Khobayet, 20, Shanto Talukdar, 21, Rahim Badsha, 22, Sher Ali, 19, Yasin, 19, and Tofail, 22.
On Wednesday afternoon, the police produced them in the Gazipur Metropolitan Magistrate's Court seeking five days’ remand. The court granted them three to question them in custody.
According to police sources and case documents, ABM Fashion Limited declared the factory closed in the afternoon for security reasons as the workers were protesting for a wage hike. During the protest that afternoon, workers of various factories in and around Konabari tried to vandalize ABM Fashion Limited. Around 700 to 800 people, including the nine arrested workers, attacked the factory with local weapons, including rods, hammers, iron pipes, wooden bats and bamboo sticks. At one stage, the workers tried to enter the factory by breaking down the main gate and the boundary wall. At the time, when security personnel and other employees stopped the attackers to protect the factory, they threw brickbats at them, resulting in some injuries.
Later, the protesters entered the factory and caused extensive damage to various offices, machinery, important accessories, fabrics, readymade garments, the generator, compressors and AC units, vandalizing the factory from the ground floor to the fifth floor. Agitated workers poured petrol and set fire to offices, floors, fabrics godown, cutting and swing sections of the factory from the ground floor to the third floor.
Abdullah Al Arefin, deputy assistant director of Gazipur Fire Service, said at around 5:30pm on Monday, 50 people knocked down the gate of ABM Fashion Limited and started a fire inside. Upon receiving the information, four firefighting units reached the spot and managed to bring it under control at about 9pm.
Afterwards, the burnt body of a worker was recovered from inside the factory during dumping. Later relatives of the deceased identified him as Emran Hossain.
Konabari police station Officer-in-Charge (OC) KM Ashraf Hossain said many of the accused have been identified through CCTV footage of the damaged factory and its surroundings. Efforts are on to arrest the others.
