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Police have cleared garment workers who blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Uttara’s Azampur area on Thursday to demand payment of outstanding wages and higher salaries.
Traffic has returned to normal after the workers left the road around noon, according to Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Uttara Division Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Rezaul Karim.
The workers began blocking the road after 9am, bringing traffic on the busy highway to a halt and causing severe congestion.
Rezaul Karim said workers from several garment factories gathered to press their demands but had no designated representatives. He alleged that some protesters attacked vehicles and chased police, prompting officers to pursue them and fire several sound grenades to disperse the crowd.
The workers demanded payment of overdue wages, higher salaries and a minimum basic monthly wage of Tk 30,000. They said rising prices of essential goods had made it increasingly difficult to manage household expenses with their current earnings.
They also alleged that repeated street protests had become necessary because of the lack of effective steps to address their demands.
Garment workers blocked roads in Azampur and Rajlaxmi areas on Monday and Wednesday over similar demands. Wednesday’s blockade disrupted traffic for several hours before the workers withdrew.
With their demands still unmet, the workers returned to the streets on Thursday.
