Female RMG worker killed during clashes among workers

Identity card of Rokeya Begum who has been killed in clashes between RMG workers in Ashulia on 17 September.
Identity card of Rokeya Begum who has been killed in clashes between RMG workers in Ashulia on 17 September.

A female worker of a readymade garments factory has died as workers clashed in Ashulia on Tuesday morning.

At least three more were injured during the clashes involving three groups. However, the workers claim the number of injured to be 15 to 20.

Law enforcers said the victim is Mst Rokeya Begum, a sewing machine operator of Mascot Garments. She joined the factory on 1 December in 2021.

Mascot Garments was shut under section 13 (1) of the Labour Act. Workers of the factory took position in front of the factory this morning. Later they attacked adjacent Southern and Radiance garments which ensued a clash among the workers of three factories.

Mohammad Sarwar Alam, a superintendent of Ashulia industrial police, told Prothom Alo that Rokeya Begum died after being hit by brickbats during the clash around 9:45pm. The body has been kept at PMK Hospital.

Two more injured workers were admitted to hospital and some others were injured, he added.

Labour unrest had been going on in Savar-Ashulia and Gazipur industrial areas over two weeks. But the majority of the factories operated peacefully on Sunday and Monday with no report of unrest.