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More readymade garment factories and vehicles were damaged on Tuesday, as labour unrest, which originated near the Dhaka export processing zone in Savar on Monday, spilled into the capital city.
   The paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles were called in, as workers went on the rampage for the second day straight. There were also reports of looting of machinery and other goods from some factories.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association convened an emergency meeting in the afternoon and threatened to shut down readymade garment factories indefinitely, if the government failed to control within five hours.
   Incidents of violence were reported from different places in and around the city, including Mirpur, Tejgaon, Mohakhali, Uttara, Wari and Tongi.
   Workers went on the rampage in Gazipur as well, while violence continued for the second consecutive day at Ashulia, where the trouble began on Monday.
   The capital city appeared in the middle of siege, as garment workers took to the street at about 8:30am, damaging and setting ablaze vehicles and factories.
   Traffic on the Dhaka-Ashulia and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways came to a halt, as the workers put up barricades at different places. Services on half of the long routes remained suspended till 2:00pm because of the violence.
   Higher secondary certificate examinees had a rough day, negotiating the trouble spots. Many examinees could not reach examination centres on time.
   At Ashulia, thousands of garment workers set ablaze four garment factories and two vehicles, including a fire engine, near the Dhaka export processing zone in Savar on the Tongi-Ashulia Road.
   They took to the street at 8:30am and brought out a procession, blocking the Tongi-Ashulia connecting road and the Zirabo Road, in protest against Monday’s attack.
   Splitting into small groups, the workers stormed into Little Star Spinning Mills of Diamond Textile at Baipail at around 9:00am and set fire to the factory in front of the law enforcers.
   As the fire fighters rushed to the spot, the angry workers also set fire to a fire fighting vehicle bearing number Dhaka-Metro-Na-8489.
   Meanwhile, some workers entered the Bake Dyeing of Lusaka Group and vandalised it. They set fire to a factory of Muscat Group, Shad Garments, Pet Fashion and Universe Knitting.
   The workers alleged that the factory owner continued the nightshift after a violent incident in the adjoining areas but the factory authorities claimed that they had suspended operational activities since Monday noon.
   They assaulted some photojournalists and set fire to a motorbike of Mohammad Alam, a senior photojournalist of the daily Ittefaq.
   At Mirpur, several hundred workers assembled in front of a sweater factory of SQ Group at Shewrapara at about 8:30am and brought out a procession after a brief rally. They turned violent when the procession came under attack by the police at the Agargaon link road crossing.
   The agitated workers started pelting brickbats at the police and at the same time to the buildings along Roquiah Sarani, stretching from Agargaon Link Road to Section 12 in Pallabi.
   Taking full control of the road, the agitators also damaged more than 20 vehicles, including two state-owned BRTC Volvo buses.
   The agitators also damaged vehicles along the road from Section 10 to Section 1 roundabouts and towards Section 13 in Kafrul.
   A huge contingent of the police, the Rapid Action Battalion and the Bangladesh Rifles personnel brought the situation under control.
   At Tejgaon, several hundred youths attacked the Samah Razor Blade Factory, a concern of the GMG Group, after failing to bring out workers from the factory.
   The rioting group entered the factory premises breaking open a portion of the gate and set fire to eight vehicles parked inside and at the gate of the factory. They also looted valuable machineries and other goods from the factory building.
   The factory manager for production, Abdur Razzak Khan, claimed the attackers had damaged and looted machines worth over Tk 10 crore.
   The agitators also vandalised garment factories and set fire to vehicles in front of the National Shooting Complex at Gulshan, Bengal Garments at Abdullahpur in Uttara and Wari.
   In Gazipur, left leaning workers’ organisations enforced a daylong strike to protest against the police action on workers of FS Sweaters at Sripur and Universe Knitting at Jamgara and the police harassment.
   The agitating workers vandalised over 100 garment factories, more than 300 vehicles and a number of shops and houses between Tongi and the Chandana square.
   They also looted valuables during the vandalism while the police detained more than 50 pickets, including the chairperson of the Garment Sramik Oikya Forum, Moshrefa Mishu.
   In Narayanganj, several thousand workers of three garment factories at Khadum under Roopganj upazila took to the street and vandalised Sharif Melamine Factory.

Readymade garment manufacturers on Tuesday accused the administration of taking no action against the ongoing unrest by workers and warned that the apparel industry would be shut down indefinitely, if the government failed to ensure security at their factories.
   Along with leaders of other businesses, they urged the government for immediate deployment of members of the armed forces to protect the industries from massive destructions by ‘miscreants dictated by a vested quarter’, who they claimed had waged a war against the economy. Many a leader also asserted that there were hardly any workers involved in the agitations, claiming that the conspirators from home and abroad were behind the massive destructions.
   The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association will hold a meeting of factory owners in the BIAM auditorium on Wednesday to decide whether they will shut down garment factories across the country for an indefinite period.
   ‘We will decide tomorrow about shutting down factories across the country for an idefinite period,’ the BGMEA vice-president, Abdus Salam Murshedy, said when talking to journalists at his office.
   Business leaders from different sectors assembled there to voice their concern at the ongoing unrest.
   Salam alleged that the factory did not receive any protection from the government despite repeated requests.
   ‘Conspirators have started a war against the garment industry and economy,’ Abdul Awal Mintoo, a former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said. ‘Why the government is not stopping this anarchy?’
   The president of the International Chamber of Commerce and Industry said apparently a foreign hand was working behind the anarchy. ‘It is a calculated move against Bangladesh’s garment industry.’
   The president of the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry
   said it is the duty of intelligence agencies to identify the vested interest groups and take strongest possible actions against anarchy.
   ‘We want deployment of army at all garment locations by tonight to restore security of workers, owners and properties,’ said Fazlul Hoque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, at an emergency press conference at the association’s office.
   Showing a fax massage his association received at 11.30am from a member factory, Tasmia Fabrics, at Gazipur, which read, ‘SOS! We are under attack’, Hoque said the total industry was under attack.
   During the two days of unrest by agitated workers, more then 200 factories have been destroyed. The damager, according to preliminary estimate, could run up to more than Tk 1,000 crore, he said.
   At a meeting at the BGMEA in the morning, some garment owners said they want actions immediately and blasted law enforcers for failing to prevent destruction of factories.
   ‘The home minister has said several times that he is taking actions but we see no action,’ one garment owner shouted.
   Some garment owners blasted the media, alleging that a section of the press misreported about non-payment of wages in garment factories.
   ‘We can challenge the media: Please find out one factory among the vandalised ones that has unsettled wages.
   All the good and compliant factories are being destroyed,’ said one garment owner, who was eventually cut short by Shahidul Hoque Litu, a BGMEA vice-president.
   Atiqul Islam said, ‘When miscreants are destructing our factories, neither the government nor the opposition is coming to save us.’

The government believes a vested quarter at home and abroad was active behind the attacks on garment factories in and around the capital in the past two days to create anarchy and hamper the growth of the RMG sector.
   ‘A vested quarter at home and abroad planned the ransacking of garment industries to create an anarchic situation and hamper the growth of the sector,’ the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, said at a press briefing on Tuesday evening.
   Genuine garment workers were not engaged in the violence, he added.
   A host of leaders from the ruling BNP and a number of ministers called on him at his office throughout the day and ventilated their anxiety over the situation at a time when the prime minister was abroad.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, who is now in Abu Dhabi, talked to the senior ministers and gave necessary directives over telephone.
   At the press briefing, when elaborating on ‘the vested quarter at home’, Mannan Bhuiyan said a section of the opposition political parties was active behind the violent activities.
   He did not, however, specify what he meant by the vested quarters abroad. ‘A neighbouring country, which is a competitor of our products in the global garment market, might have been behind the violence,’ he said.
   Earlier, he had a series of meetings with key ministers, leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, a section of leaders of garment workers and some of his political aides.
   He warned that the image of the country as a good producer of garment products would be hampered, if the violence continued.
   Mannan Bhuiyan, also secretary general of the ruling BNP, called upon all quarters, including the political parties, entrepreneurs, professional bodies and labour leaders, to work together against the violence.
   About inactive role of the police in the past two days, he said the police were asked to exercise restraint.
   He admitted that the government did not think that violence would spread on Tuesday but said it would take appropriate measures to protect life and property.
   About the garment owners’ demand to deploy army to protect the industries, he said the government deployed adequate police, Rapid Action Battalion and Bangladesh Rifles personnel to protect industries.
   Earlier in the morning, Mannan Bhuiyan summoned the commerce and water resources minister, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, the Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, the housing and public works minister, Mirza Abbas, the fisheries and livestock minister, Abdullah Al Noman, the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, and the state minister for labour and employment, Aman Ullah Aman, to his office for consultation.
   The food and disaster management minister, Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, the prime minister’s political secretary, Harris Chowdhury, and a number of BNP lawmakers and leaders rushed to Mannan Bhuiyan’s office Tuesday morning.
   In the meetings, some BNP leaders and lawmakers complained that the police were inactive in most of the places of occurrence.
   Babar, however, denied the allegation.
   After the meeting, Hafiz Uddin Ahmed said the attacks were ‘intentional’ when a delegation of German investors was visiting the country.
   At 2:15pm, a group of business leaders met Mannan Bhuiyan to express their helplessness and to seek security for the industries.
   Bangladesh Textile Mills Association president MA Awal, former BGMEA presidents Anisur Rahman Sinha, Redwan Ahmed and Kazi Moniruzzaman, former Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industries president Saiful Islam and Bangladesh Chamber of Industries president AK Azad led the delegation.
   ‘We demanded stern action against anarchists. We demanded deployment of army,’ Abdul Awal told journalists.’
   Mentioning inaction of the police, Anisur Rahman Sinha said, ‘It’s time to act. What is the use of holding a gun and be an spectator of violent acts?’
   The government has to protect industries, he asserted.
   Seeking security, Redwan Ahmed told the minister, ‘Please protect us. We are in crisis.’
   In the afternoon, a section of leaders of the garment factory workers met Mannan Bhuiyan and demanded action to realise their demands from the owners of the factories.
   Montu Ghosh and Idris Ali led the workers delegation.

The commerce ministry fears that the latest spate of commotion in the readymade garment sector could have a debilitating impact on export, if not resolved immediately.
   Even a 10 per cent fall in RMG exports could mean a loss of $850 million in earning, much higher than the earning from any other sector, except remittances by Bangladeshi workers abroad, a commerce ministry official said.
   A good number of buyers and market players in Europe and the United States have already contacted the ministry over telephone or by email, enquiring about the goings-on in the RMG sector and expressing their concern about the fracas.
   While the trade organisations in the apparel sector have requested for urgent steps, including an emergency meeting, the ministry feels it has little to do in respect of the attacks on the RMG units, the official said.
   The commerce minister heads a taskforce on compliances related to safety, environmental standards, payment habit and welfare measures for the workers. However, it is unlikely that a meeting of the taskforce will be convened in the current context.
   The minister in charge of the commerce ministry, Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, talked to his cabinet colleagues, including the local government, rural development and cooperatives minister, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, and officials of his ministry to expedite measures to bring the situation under control.
   ‘It is very unfortunate and the export sector is perhaps facing the worst crisis. But we alone cannot do anything and the home ministry has more to do and should tackle the situation with an iron hand,’ the commerce ministry official told New Age on Tuesday afternoon.
   Hafiz Uddin, also the water resources minister, skipped a ceremony at Zia International Airport in the morning to see off the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, who left for the United Arab Emirates.

The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule on the Election Commission on contempt of court charge for violating its verdict in preparing the electoral roll after the Appellate Division dismissed the chief election commissioner’s appeal against the judgement of the former.
   Dismissing the appeal, the full five-member bench of the Appellate Division upheld the January 4 High Court verdict and reinforced the High Court’s directive with modifications that said the Election Commission should prepare the electoral roll by taking in account the existing roll that has to be maintained in accordance with section 7(6) of the Electoral Rolls Ordinance 1982.
   The Appellate Division’s judgement, delivered on Tuesday after a five-day-long hearing, will add to the raging controversies over the new electoral roll, which has already been published, making its fate uncertain, as the writ petitioners’ lawyers said the new list has lost its legitimacy.
   After five days’ of legal battle over the mode of preparation of the new electoral roll, the highest court delivered its verdict for which the lawyers and journalists were waiting with bated breath for a tension-ridden hour in the court.
   If there is a computerised database, the commission should make the best use of it, and if not, a computerised electoral roll with database should always be maintained to avoid future controversy and extra labour, said the Appellate Division in its judgement which echoed the High Court’s edicts.
   Those whose names are already on the existing electoral roll cannot be dropped unless they are dead or have been declared to be of unsound mind or ceased to be citizens of Bangladesh or ceased to be residents of the particular area or constituency, the judgement added.
   Interpreting the judgement, the chief counsel for the writ petitioners, Kamal Hossain, told reporters that due to the Appellate Division’s judgement the draft voters’ list, published on May 3 by the commission, has lost its legal legitimacy.
   Awami League general secretary MA Jalil’s counsel, M Amirul Islam, said, ‘The draft voters’ list itself is “illegal” according to the Appellate Division’s judgement.’
   Another counsel of the writ petitioners, Rokanuddin Mahmud, said, ‘The present draft electoral roll is not effective and lawful.’
   The commission’s counsel, TH Khan, said, ‘We have lost the legal battle, and I do not know what will be the fate of the draft voters’ list.’
   Following two writ petitions filed by three Awami League lawmakers — Abdul Jalil, Rahmat Ali and Asaduzzaman Noor — a High Court bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice Rezaul Haque, on January 4, delivered the verdict with five observations and asked the commission to update the electoral roll by basing it on the data of the existing one.
   After the Appellate Division’s judgement, the High Court bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, which delivered the January 4 verdict, issued a rule asking chief election commissioner MA Aziz, election commissioners justice Mahfuzur Rahman and SM Zakaria and secretary of the commission’s secretariat Mohammad Zokoria to explain within three weeks why contempt of court proceedings should not be drawn against them for violating its verdict in preparing the electoral roll.
   The rule was issued upon a petition filed by MA Jalil.

The election commissioners and the chief election commissioner, MA Aziz, remained silent over the Supreme Court’s judgment on preparation of the new voters' list. The Supreme Court upheld the High Courts judgement that the voters’ roll should be a revised version of the existing list, not a totally new one.
   ‘After receiving the copy of the judgment the commission will talk about the next steps that it will take,’ an official of the commission told the waiting journalists after emerging from the office of CEC.
   The official also told reporters that the commission would very soon hold a meeting to take the next decision regarding the preparation of the electoral roll.
   Most of the Tk 60 crore from the public exchequer, already spent for preparing a fresh voters’ list, may go to waste. The EC had proposed a budget of Tk 146 crore to the government for the purpose and started preparatory work after receiving Tk 60 crore as the first instalment. Meanwhile a group of people, mostly activists of the Awami League, on Tuesday vandalised the furniture of the house of an assistant registration officer, Azizul Huq, also head master of the Khilgaon Model High School accusing him of various irregularities in the draft voters’ roll.

The prime minister, Khaleda Zia is likely to take a decision soon on upward adjustment of electricity tariff for consumers in the cities and towns by about five per cent to strike parity between urban-rural power tariffs.
   The prime minister is likely to take another decision on downward adjustment of compound interest rate on outstanding power bills.
   If Khaleda, also the minister for power, energy and mineral resources, approves a Power Division proposal, power tariff for customers of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, Dhaka Electric Supply Company and the Power Development Board would be increased by 5 per cent.
   The division last week sent to the prime minister a summery that also proposed a 10 per cent tariff hike on power purchased by the DESA, the DESCO and the Rural Electrification Board from the PDB, officials of the division said.
   The newly-appointed state minister for power, M Anwarul Kabir Talukder, said on Tuesday that two summaries on readjustment of power tariffs for general consumers and bulk consumers (power agencies) and on interest rate on outstanding bills had already been sent to the prime minister.
   ‘The PM is well aware of the importance of readjusting power tariff for the urban consumers to match it with the tariff for rural consumers,’ he told the leaders of the Dhaka City Shop Owners Association who demanded a parity between power tariffs for city and rural consumers.
   ‘I will talk to her on the issues as soon as possible after she returns from the United Arab Emirate on Wednesday,’ Talukder said.
   The rural power consumers pay the REB power tariff at a rate of Tk 2.8 to Tk 3 per unit while the urban consumers pay a minimum Tk 2.5 for per unit of electricity.
   In the other summery, the division has proposed to introduce penalty for outstanding bills at a flat rate of 10 per cent of the total amount for consumers of the DESA and the PDB scrapping the existing provision of 2 per cent interest a month that increases at a compound rate.
   A high official said that the division proposed that if any consumer failed to pay the outstanding bill in three months with the 10 per cent penalty, his or her power connection would be snapped.
   Consumers of the REB and the DESCO enjoy such facilities of flat penalty rate.

Amnesty International on Tuesday accused the United States and its main ally Britain of jettisoning human rights in the wars they have declared against terrorism.
   In its annual report, Amnesty lashed out at the US government for holding thousands of people without charge or trial in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
   The London-based human rights group also took British prime minister Tony Blair’s government to task for its security crackdown following the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks in London that killed 56 people, including the four bombers.
   ‘Measures purporting to counter terrorism led to serious human rights violations, and concern was widespread about the impact of these measures on Muslims and other minority communities,’ the report said.
   The developments were part of a broader trend, it added.
   ‘The (British) government continued to erode fundamental human rights, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary, including by persisting with attempts to undermine the ban on torture at home and abroad, and by enacting and seeking to enact legislation inconsistent with domestic and international human rights law,’ it said.
   It also denounced the British government for striking agreements with Jordan, Libya and Lebanon that allow for sending security suspects to those countries based only on diplomatic assurances that they would not be mistreated.
   It accused the Blair government of allowing the US Central Intelligence Agency to use British territory to transfer security suspects between countries, outside any legal framework. And it accused the British authorities of breaching international and domestic human rights law ‘through its role in the internment without charge of at least 10,000 people in Iraq’.
   The United States—which has received loyal support from Britain in its war on terror following the September 2001 attacks—was charged by Amnesty with human rights abuses not only in known jails but also in ‘secret’ prisons.
   “There were reports of secret US-run detention centres in undisclosed locations where detainees were held in circumstances amounting to “disappearances”,’ Amnesty said.

Global human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday said escalating violence pushed Bangladesh to the edge of a human rights crisis.
   ‘Escalating levels of violence, including several waves of bombings, combined with lack of appropriate action by the authorities, pushed Bangladesh to the edge of a human rights crisis,’ said the Report 2006: The State of the World’s Human Rights released by the watchdog on Tuesday.
   A rising tide of violence, much of it perpetrated by Islamist groups, affected most parts of the country.
   The main targets of the violence were human rights defenders — lawyers, judges, opposition activists, members of minority communities and places of worship, the report said, giving the picture of rights abuse in 2005.
   The report, quoting media in the first quarter of the year alone, said more than 1,900 women were allegedly subjected to violence, over 200 were killed allegedly after rape, over 300 women were allegedly abused for not meeting demands for dowry and over 100 were trafficked.
   The Acid Survivors Foundation said at least 166 incidents of acid attacks involving 210 victims — 138 of whom were women — took place in the first nine months of the year.
   Hundreds of journalists were reportedly harassed, intimidated and attacked by state agents and non-state factors, including Islamist groups.
   Attacks on minorities, including the Hindus, Christians, Ahmadiyyas and indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and elsewhere were carried out with apparent impunity, says the report.
   The reports also said human rights defenders continued to face abuses by the police, army and other law enforcement personnel, including arbitrary arrest and torture. They were also harassed through filing of unsubstantiated criminal accusations against them.

Security has been tightened at garment factories in the port city as panic gripped the apparel sector here following widespread labour unrest in Dhaka and other places, officials said.
   Security forces intensified patrol at the industrial belts and the Chittagong Export Processing Zone with the deployment of elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), paramilitary BDR, riot police and the armed police battalion, they added. The commander of Chittagong RAB unit, Lt Col Hasinur Rahman, told New Age that over 300 troops of the battalion were already deployed to prevent possible violence at garment factories in Chittagong.
   ‘Our troops are on alert at the industrial belts where garment factories are located and patrols have been intensified,’ he said adding: ‘we are monitoring situation at different garment factories so that nobody can create any trouble.’
   ‘Besides, we’ve set up a special camp in Kalurghat industrial area to strengthen security,’ he said adding that the battalion was keeping watch on all industrial areas here.
   The assistant commissioner (detective branch) of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, Mosharraf Hossain, informed newsmen that a large number of riot police in addition to the BDR and other forces were deployed at the sensitive points of the industrial belts where garment factories were located.
   The first vice-president of the Chittagong unit of the BGMEA, MA Tayub, said: ‘we’ve already taken precautionary measures as a panicky situation prevails at garment factories here.’
   Over 500 garment factories are located in Chittagong, he informed newsmen.

The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, said on Tuesday that the government would tackle the violence in the readymade garment sector ‘with confidence and patience’.
   ‘It is the responsibility of the government to tackle any such situation with confidence and patience, and we are trying to do that,’ he said when briefing journalists at the home ministry.
   More than 100 RMG factories have come under attack in the past two days, which he said demonstrated that a certain quarter was plotting to destroy the burgeoning sector. ‘It is the responsibility of all to save this important sector from destruction,’ he said.
   Babar said he had ordered deployment of a sufficient number of law enforcers to restore normalcy.
   He replied in the negative when asked whether the government would call in the army to aid the civil administration. ‘There would be no need for army deployment,’ he said.
   ‘Additional personnel from different law enforcing agencies such as the police, the Bangladesh Rifles and the Rapid Action Battalion have been deployed in Tongi, Savar and other flashpoints,’ he said.
   ‘Many a good factory, which regularly pays wage to workers, has been set on fire, prompting us to think that the reason [for the unrest] lies elsewhere,’ he said. ‘The discontent of the workers does not appear to be the reason behind the violent incident, as outsiders have also joined the attacks on factories and vehicles.’
   He said the government would dig out the actual reason behind the anarchy.

Widespread agitations by garment workers in and around the capital city sent turnover and share prices tumbling at both the Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges on Tuesday.
   The turnover at the Dhaka bourse went down to Tk 13.64 crore, lowest in May. The market indicator lost Tk 2.77 crore from the previous day. The turnover at the Chittagong bourse slipped to Tk 2.36 crore from Tk 4.48 crore on Monday.
   The DSE general index lost 8.13 points or 0.59 per cent to close at 1,366.96. The blue chips index DSE20 shed 5.46 points or 0.40 per cent to close at 1,345.37.
   The CSE selective categories index lost 13.97 points or 0.70 per cent to close at 1,985.96.
   The blue chips index CSE30 shed 11.59 points or 0.42 per cent to close 2,720.36.
   Violent protest by garment workers in and around the city had a negative impact on the investor mood, as the garment sector contributes a significant percentage of foreign exchange to the economy,
   resulting in thin trading, insiders said.
   Garment workers in the Dhaka export processing zone clashed with agents of garment factory owners and the police on Monday over non-payment of wages.
   One garment worker was shot dead reportedly by member of the Bangladesh Ansars, and more than 200 people were injured during the clashes.
   The workers set two garment factories on fire and damaged more than 100 others in and outside the exclusive zone at Zamagarah.
   Monday’s violence led to widespread protests and violence in the capital city on Tuesday, as workers agitated to press home their 11-point charter of demands.
   The possibility of a delay to the start of share trading of the Dhaka Electric Supply Company may also have been a dampener on the investor mood over the past couple of days, a stockbroker said.
   The DESCO debut, scheduled for May 31, may be deferred by at least 15 days, DSE officials said.

Labour leaders attributed the ongoing agitation by readymade garment workers to years of systematic deception and deprivation by factory owners.
   Factory owners have hardly ever bothered to address the legitimate concerns of workers, they said. Time and again workers have demanded that their wages should be increased, and their rights and safety at workplace be ensured, in vain, they added.
   More than 20 lakh people, majority of them women, work at 4,000 garment factories in Bangladesh, putting in 12 hours or more every day for monthly pays in the range of Tk 500 to Tk 1,500, according to official figures.
   ‘I get Tk 900 for a month of hard labour which is not enough to even foot by food bills,’ said a worker at Tejgaon.
   ‘Can you show me one worker who runs his family without a hitch with the money he gets?’ Sagar, who works in SS Sweater for a monthly salary of Tk 950, asked.
   Owners of RMG factories have subverted a government plan to fix a minimum national wage for workers in the private sector and continue to pay one of the lowest remuneration packages in the world.
   They have, meanwhile, submitted a proposal to the labour ministry, which lies pending for more than six months.
   ‘Workers in the apparel sector, which contributes to 75 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, are paid on average less than six cents an hour,’ Ruhul Amin, general secretary of the Bangladesh Garment Sramik (workers) Trade Union Kendra (centre).
   ‘Low wages have helped the owners to keep production costs at a minimum level but made headlines in global media and given out a negative image of the country in respect of workers’ wages and welfare,’ said Abdul Kader Hawlader, president of Jatiya Sramik Jote, Bangladesh.
   Garment owners receive the highest amount of cash incentive show a reckless disregard for safety at workplace as deaths of 4,000 workers in industrial accidents such as fire and building collapse point to.
   Workers are not entitled to even public holidays, let alone a day off in a week. Also, payments of bonus and medical allowance are irregular, if not non-existent, while maternity leave continues to be discouraged.
   Factory owners claim that they provide workers with perks and privileges but what they actually are workers don’t have the faintest idea of.
   Many workers have alleged that their employees and their hired goons force them to work long hours for low pay, no matter how unhealthy the working condition is. In most cases, workers who come from poor families find no alternatives.
   In most cases, workers do not dare to voice their demand for welfare for fear of losing jobs, as job cut is a common phenomenon in the RMG sector.
   Abul Hossain, president of the Textile Garments Workers Federation, said the past two days of violence were the outcome of two decades of repression by factory owners.
   He said the crisis would be solved, if the workers were paid Tk 3,000 in monthly salary, given weekly day off, and ensured safety at workplace and other rights.

Different organisations, working for rights of the workers in the industrial sector, set an 11-point demand.
   They also announced a strike in the garments factories for June 12 to press home their demands, including fixation of minimum wage at Tk 3,000 per month, security at workplace, weekly holiday at all the factories, workers’ rights to do trade union and establish labours’ welfare-oriented industrial relations.
   The other demands are end to repression on workers, withdrawal of cases against them and release of all the arrested workers, 16-week maternal leave for all the female workers, implementation of the existing labour law, payment of salaries and other dues and allowances immediately and reopening of the closed factories.

Despite protracted movements of garment workers for pay increase, the legal minimum wage remains Tk 930 with the government paying no heed to their demand for minimum living wages.
   The minimum wage for the garment sector workers was last fixed in 1994 while the cost of living shot up by about 50 per cent, according to official assessment, because of mounting inflationary pressures, though independent economists put it at hundred per cent.
   Labour leaders alleged that wages for workers did not increase due to the government’s indifference to their plight.
   The low wages for garment workers have been the outcome of continuous lobbying by the leaders of trade bodies and businessmen-turned-politicians in the corridor of power, they said.
   ‘Powerful lobbies of garment owners have been able to keep the government convinced that if wages in garment sector increase, it will increase production costs and discourage local and foreign investors from investing in the burgeoning sector,’ said Jafrul Hasan, general secretary of the labour front of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
   Hasan, also the permanent representative of workers in the Minimum Wage Board, alleged that reluctance on the part of the government, and dillydallying by the labour ministry were blocking formation of the commission.
   The board under the labour ministry is responsible for forming periodic wage commissions to review wages in different private sector industries.
   Roy Ramesh Chandra, the general secretary of the opposition Awami League’s labour front, alleged that the labour ministry was sitting on the demand for wage increase in the garment sector.
   Shahida Sarker, the president of the Garment Workers Federation, alleged, ‘the bureaucracy has also been thwarting the government’s move to review the wage structure.’
   Workers in the country’s apparel sector that accounts for 75 per cent of export revenues, are mostly paid less than 6 cents an hour against 20 to 78 cents in other countries.
   In February 2005, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation found that the monthly minimum wage for Bangladesh’s garment workers was some $33 ten years ago, but that came down to $16 in real value due to devaluation of Bangladesh Taka against dollar.
   The Brussels-based organisation shows that in India and Pakistan, an apparel worker gets at least 20 cents per hour, in China 23 cents, in Sri Lanka 40 cents while in Thailand the worker is paid 78 cents.
   Meanwhile, the labour organisations have agreed to forge a greater unity to press the demand for increasing the workers’ minimum monthly wages to Tk 3,000 (18 cents an hour).

Hundreds of examinees of the Higher Secondary Certificate and equivalent examinations failed to reach examination centres on time because of transport shortage and barricade by the police at different points in and around the capital city on Tuesday.
   The examinees under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, the Madrassah Education Board and the Technical Education Board were supposed to report at the examination centres before 10:00pm, when the three-hour examination was scheduled to start.
   Agitation of garment workers for due wages and other demands turned wild Tuesday, as they set fire to factories and vehicles and blocked roads in Dhaka and suburban areas, including Mirpur, Savar, Gazipur Tejgaon, Uttara and Tongi.
   The education board directed principals of the colleges to provide more time to the examinees who reported at the examination centres late but the principals ignored the directives. Some principals claimed that they did not get any such directive.
   Talking to New Age Tuesday afternoon Ashik Mahmood, an examinee at the Bhawal Badre Alam College centre in Gazipur, said, ‘I reached the centre at about 10:25am, but I had to hand in my paper as per schedule.’
   The principal of the college, Mahfuza Rahman, told New Age that she did not get any directive.
   Rehnuma Khanam, an examinee at the Government Bangla College centre at Mirpur, said ‘Despite several requests the invigilators did not provide me with extra time.’
   In contrast, Rafiqul Islam, an examinee at the Uttara Mahila College centre, said, ‘The invigilators gave me additional 25 minutes, as I reached the centre at 10:25am.’
   The chairman of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka, Professor Harun-ur-Rashid Sikder, said that directive was given to all the principals.
   HSC and its equivalent examinations under nine education boards began on May 14 and will continue till last week of June.

The president, Iajuddin Ahmed, was admitted to Combined Military Hospital, Dhaka after he had suffered cardiac complications Tuesday afternoon.
   He might be flown to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, a source told New Age.
   ‘The medical board, formed to monitor the condition of the president, was observing whether he would be sent abroad for better treatment,’ Mokhlesur Rahman Chowdhury, press secretary to the president, told New Age at 10:00pm on Tuesday.
   ‘He was admitted to the hospital at 3:30pm for a medical checkup,’ said a news release from Bangabhaban, without mentioning the complications.
   Mokhlesur told New Age Tuesday night that the president had been undergoing treatment under a medical board led by Brigadier Malek.
   Finance minister M Saifur Rahman, LGRD and cooperatives minister Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, political secretary to the prime minister Haris Chowdhury and state minister for health Mizanur Rahman Sinha visited him in the hospital.
   The board includes specialist physicians of the CMH, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka Medical College Hospital and the president’s personal physician Colonel Bahar. According to private news agency BDNews, an air ambulance was requisitioned for taking the president to Singapore.

The Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina, on Tuesday accused the government of failing to ensuring security of garment workers, owners and the factories, and said the ruling alliance has no right to stay in power.
   She criticised the ruling party leaders who blamed the opposition for the workers’ unrest in Dhaka and on the outskirts. She said on every such occasion, the government points figure at the opposition and in all the cases, the accusation has proved wrong.
   ‘They [the ruling alliance leaders] had been the mastermind of all such incidents,’ Hasina said, referring to previous incidents such as repeated grenade attacks, series of bombings and the killing of Shah AMS Kibra. She addressed a discussion on ‘free, fair and neutral election: precondition to empowerment of the people,’ organised by the Peshajibi Samanway Parishad at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre.
   The government, she said, was trying to divert public attention from the present situation of the country.
   She lambasted the comments of the ruling party leaders that another country might have instigated the workers to attack the factories. She said if it so happened, the government must name the country. ‘If the allegation is true, it is a threat to our sovereignty. The prime minister must be accountable for such infringement on our sovereignty.’

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The newly-appointed state minister for power, M Anwarul Kabir Talukder, said on Tuesday that there would be no ‘extra body’ or ‘stumbling blocks’ between him and the prime minister at the Prime Minister’s Office.
   Talukder made the comments to reporters when his attention was drawn to a high-powered committee, headed by the principal secretary to the PMO, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, that had been overseeing the activities of the power sector for the last one year.
   To a question whether the committee would continue to perform as virtually the absolute authority of the power sector, he replied, ‘there will be no extra body between me and the prime minister [who is also in charge of the ministry of power, energy and mineral resources].’
   Asked what he would do if the PMO officials and the committee stopped the files sent from the Power Division as they ( the committee) had been doing for the last one year, Talukder said, ‘officials at the PMO will discharge their secretarial duties. They will assist me and will not be a stumbling block.’
   The minister, at a meeting with the leaders of the Dhaka City Shop Owners’ Association, assured the traders that he would try to minimise the problems in the power sector and take steps to curb corruption, inefficiency and mismanagement.
   He warned power officials that they would ‘perish’ if they failed to produce results. ‘Even if I fail to produce results, I will perish. Same will be the case with you. Produce results or get perished,’ he told the power officials.
   Talukder said he believed that the majority of the officials and employees of the power sector were honest. ‘Only a few corrupt and dishonest officials and employees are destroying the image of the sector,’ he said.
   The minister told the shop owners that it would not be possible to eradicate load-shedding in the last five months of the tenure of the present government. ‘But I promise, I will try to improve the power situation by minimising inefficiency, mismanagement and corruption in different power agencies and corporations.’
   When reporters asked him how much improvement he could make when there was a huge gap in demand and generation, he replied, ‘definitely there will be some improvement if you can reduce corruption and pilferage, but I cannot quantify the amount [in megawatts] at the moment as I took office only yesterday.’
   When the shop owners referred to the hassles faced by consumers because of ghost bills and underhand dealings with power officials, Talukder said, ‘strong measures will be taken against the malpractice and underhand dealings regarding electricity bills. However, it will take time as you cannot change the character of an organisation overnight.’

The High Court on Tuesday issued a rule on the government to explain within two weeks why it should not be directed to terminate the contractual service of the cabinet secretary, ASM Abdul Halim, because of his political link with the ruling BNP which violates the Government Service Conduct Rules 1979.
   A High Court bench of Justice M Awlad Ali and Justice Zinat Ara also asked the government to explain why Halim’s continuation in the office of cabinet secretary should not be declared unlawful.
   The court passed the order after hearing a public interest writ petition filed by a government officer, Rabiul Alam M Muktadir Chowdhury, who was also one of the private secretaries of Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister.
   Pleading for the petitioner, Anisul Huq argued that Halim, appointed on a contractual basis as cabinet secretary after his retirement, started doing active politics and projecting himself as a candidate of the ruling BNP from a constituency in Jamalpur.
   Being a government officer, he has committed an offence under the service rules.
   After having obtained assurances that he will be given nomination by the BNP, he started taking up development projects in that area in Jamalpur and has also started election campaigning, showing ‘total disregard for the discipline of the civil service’, the counsel contended.
   Referring to Rule 25 of the Government Servants Conduct Rules, the counsel argued that no civil servant could be a member of, or be otherwise associated with, any political party or any organisation affiliated with any political party.
   They cannot also assist or take part, in any manner, in any political activity in Bangladesh and abroad, he contended.

The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday assured that it would recruit more Bangladeshi workforce, provide development assistance and supply oil at concessional prices.
   The assurance came during formal talks between the prime minister, Khaleda Zia and the UAE president, Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, at Al Batin Palace on the first day of Khaleda’ two-day tour of the oil-rich Gulf country.
   The talks, which lasted for over 45 minutes from 1:30pm (local time), covered all aspects of bilateral relations, the foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin, told journalists accompanying the prime minister.
   ‘Bangladeshi people will always be welcome to the UAE…They are very industrious, contributing to the development of the UAE,’ the UAE president was quoted as telling the Bangladeshi prime minister.
   At present, four lakh Bangladeshis are working in the UAE and the country will require three lakh new workers for construction of a new city in Dubai.
   Khaleda apprised the UAE president of Bangladesh’s need for oil and petroleum products at concessional rates in the wake of soaring oil prices on the global market. In response, the UAE president said he would look into the matter positively.
   Details of the deals would be worked out soon at the concerned ministry level, the foreign secretary said.
   The prime minister also pointed out increasing demand for power and energy in Bangladesh. Nahyan assured that he would encourage both public and private sectors of his country to find ways of cooperation and set up power plants in Bangladesh.
   The UAE president also responded positively to Khaleda’s proposal for establishment of an oil refinery in Bangladesh.
   On cooperation in trade and investment, Nahyan said they consider Bangladeshis as their brothers and the UAE would do whatever cooperation is needed in every sector for Bangladesh’s faster development.
   The prime minister said volume of trade could be increased through import of pharmaceuticals, knitwear and footwear from Bangladesh
   During the meeting, planned investment by the Dhabi Group of companies in major ventures was discussed.
   The UAE side appreciated congenial investment atmosphere in Bangladesh and showed interest in extending cooperation in telecommunications, real estate and banking sectors, Hemayet said adding they are also impressed about Bangladeshis’ expertise in telecommunications, ICT and other sectors.
   Both the leaders stressed continuous contacts at high political levels to strengthen the bilateral relations. They recalled the role of the late UAE president Nahyan and former Bangladesi president Ziaur Rahman in cementing the bilateral ties.
   Khaleda invited the UAE president to visit Bangladesh. He gladly accepted the invitation saying he would visit Dhaka as soon as possible.
   During the meeting, the UAE vice-president and the prime minister Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, cabinet ministers and senior officials of the host government were present at the two-nation summit.
   The foreign minister Morshed Khan, the foreign secretary, Hemayetuddin and senior officials attended the meeting from Bangladesh side.

Assailants killed a young man by slitting the throat at Bonkanya Purbapara under Sujanagar upazila on Monday night.
   The dead was identified as Abdus Salam, 32, a leader of underground Purba Banglar Communist Party. Salam came under the attack while he was returning home at about 11:00pm.
   The police recovered the body and sent it to Pabna General Hospital morgue for post-mortem examination.
   The police suspected that he might have been killed in a sequel to intra-party conflict. But the victim’s family said a gang of criminals killed him as he refused to pay them toll.
   Meanwhile, the police recovered the body of an unidentified young man, aged about 25, from the river Padma near Chandpur village under sadar upazila on Tuesday morning. The body was sent to Pabna General Hospital morgue for autopsy.

Zakaria Milon, a senior reporter of Daily Ittefaq, died in his Uttara residence on Tuesday. He was 58.
   Family members of Zakaria said he had been suffering from cardiac diseases and diabetic.
   He is survived by his wife, three sons and a daughter.
   He was buried at Uttara Sector No 4 graveyard.
   His janaza was held on the National Press Club premises.
   Born in Chandpur, Zakaria was a former chief reporter of daily Ittefaq.
   He was also the general secretary of the Dhaka Union of Journalists and the founder president of the Crime Reporters’ Association of Bangladesh.