DHAKA (AFX) - Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi textile workers demanding better pay set fire to 14 more factories today, the second day of violent demonstrations that spread to the capital Dhaka.
The demonstrators, including barefoot women, opened up a battlefield in the country's biggest textile industrial belt covering Dhaka and its adjoining industrial towns of Ashulia, Savar and Tongi, police said.
Some 50,000 protesters armed with bamboo sticks and chanting slogans burnt garment factories at Ashulia, while police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse them, local police chief Jamiruddin Ahmed said.
Dhaka fire brigade deputy director Selim Newaz Bhuiyan said a total of 14 garment factories were set on fire in Ashulia, Dhaka and its suburbs.
In the capital, more than 10,000 workers from Dhaka's Tejgaon industrial area and from the Mirpur, Uttara and Wari districts poured into the streets demanding better pay, overtime and a mandatory weekly holiday.
The workers torched and smashed dozens of cars and buses and stormed dozens of factories before blocking major roads and bringing city traffic to a virtual halt, the Dhaka police control room said.
'At least 10,000 garment workers demonstrated in the city's Kafrul area. They ransacked several factories, broke vehicles and put blockades on the road,' said the duty police officer for the Kafrul area, Mizanur Rahman.
Police said more than 1,500 workers stormed factories in Tejgaon and looted and set fire to one factory after its owners prevented the workers from joining the protests.
Some 2,000 vandalised a garment factory in Abdullahpur, police said, adding the thousands of garment workers also ransacked several factories and torched vehicles in the neighbouring industrial town of Tongi.
Security forces opened fire yesterday, killing one protester among a crowd estimated at 100,000 from Dhaka's Export Processing Zone, and nearby Ashulia.
Police said yesterday's protests saw at least 30 factories ransacked and dozens of vehicles smashed.
The workers are demanding at least 11 taka (16 cents) for every sweater they sew, a mandatory day off Friday, regular payment and a raise for overtime. They now earn about seven taka per sweater.
Union leaders said the protests came as no surprise.
'A garment worker earns 2,000 taka a month for working around 12 hours a day. They pass months without holidays and some factories don't even pay them regularly,' said Nazma Akhter, head of the United Garments Workers Federation.
Manufacturers said at least 100 garment factories were ransacked today. They suspected an international conspiracy.
'We've been growing at 20 per cent despite doomsday predictions. This has made our competitors jealous and they're out to destroy us,' said Abdus Salam Murshedi, acting head of the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
Home Minister Lutfuzzaman Babar said the government would deal firmly with the protesters as garment industries were the lifeblood of the economy. He said a large contingent of the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles had been deployed.
Bangladesh has over 4,200 garment factories, which employ 40 pct of all industrial workers and are enjoying a boom following an end to global textile quotas.
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