Bangladesh deploys additional paramilitary forces as garment workers’ protests continue

Dhaka, Activists of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday took to the streets in "anti-protest" campaigns while authorities deployed additional paramilitary forces as garment workers' protests over higher wages continued for a fifth day.Bangladesh deploys additional paramilitary forces as garment workers’ protests continueBangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association officials said 50 factories were shut down in suburban Gazipur fearing backlash over the death of a previously injured worker during the current wave of protests.According to local media reports, the protesters set ablaze a police van in suburban Savar industrial area during clashes that blocked the major Dhaka-Aricha highway.BNP activists carrying bamboo sticks took to the streets to "maintain order and resist infiltrators" as the party earlier alleged that activists of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina's now disbanded Awami League had infiltrated among the workers.Prime Minister Tarique Rahman's Information Affairs Adviser Zahedur Rahman on Tuesday accused Hasina of fuelling the unrest."I do not believe Sheikh Hasina will let the government remain in peace as long as she is alive. As long as Hasina would remain alive, acts of sabotage could continue," he told a media briefing, alleging that the ousted premier is an architect of the protests.The remarks marked a shift from Rahman's earlier assertion that Hasina and her disbanded Awami League were politically irrelevant in Bangladesh.Hasina fled to India after her government was ousted in a student-led uprising on August 5, 2024. A special tribunal during the subsequent interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus later sentenced her to death in absentia.The violent protests prompted Bangladesh to constitute on Sunday a six-member Wage Board led by a senior district judge which in its first meeting on Wednesday agreed to finalise their recommendation in a month.The government earlier said the new wage structure would take effect from January, but the intensified protests visibly prompted authorities to implement the new wage structure from December 1, according to BSS.The New Age newspaper carried a report headlined "BNP activists hunt for 'AL infiltrators' amid Savar RMG protests" while the Daily Star and other newspapers said the BNP activists were asked to stand by police to prevent acts of sabotage.The protests expanded in the industrial hubs of Uttara neighbourhood of Dhaka on Wednesday. The protesters clashed with law enforcement personnel in industrial hubs in the capital's Mirpur area alongside Savar, Gazipur and Narayanganj on the outskirts of Dhaka.State-run BSS news agency reported 10,000 policemen were deployed in Mirpur area alone to maintain order while Special Response Battalion, Armed Police Battalion, Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime and police detectives and other intelligence agencies were assisting them.The BSS also said 24 Border Guard Bangladesh platoons were positioned in the industrial belts around Dhaka covering Savar, Ashulia, Gazipur and Narayanganj while the paramilitary force earlier said their Pilkhana headquarters set up a monitoring centre using drones and body-worn cameras.Bangladesh's garment sector has been under pressure from rising production costs, inflation and intense competition in global markets. Workers, meanwhile, say their wages have failed to keep pace with the cost of living, with inflation hovering around 8 per cent.This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.