POLICE officers and garment factory workers engaged in repeated clashes in Fatullah, Narayanganj, after demonstrations over minimum wage demands spilled onto local streets.
The violence erupted on Wednesday morning in the Kathelpul area of Sadar sub-district as workers mobilised to demand a monthly minimum wage of 30,000 taka. Protesters blocked the Hajiganj–Post Office road and set fires along the thoroughfare, prompting law enforcement to deploy tear gas canisters and sound grenades to disperse the crowd. Several demonstrators were detained during the scuffle, which left the industrial belt under heightened tension.
According to eyewitnesses and police officials, the protest began when workers from Micro Fibre, Liberty, and surrounding ready-made garment (RMG) factories walked off their shifts in Kathelpul and assembled on the streets. Protesters began hurling bricks and stones at neighbouring industrial units to compel other labourers to join the agitation.
As the crowd swelled, groups of angry workers lit fires on the tarmac and attempted to march towards the strategic Shibu Market intersection along the Dhaka–Narayanganj Link Road. Industrial Police and local precinct officers established barricades to block their advance. When security personnel moved to clear the carriageway, confrontation flared into running battles. Security forces responded by firing tear gas and sound grenades, sending workers scattering through nearby alleys.
Abdullah Al Mahmud, Superintendent of Police for Industrial Police-4, stated that the disturbance initiated when workers from the Micro Fibre plant walked out and sought to shutter adjacent establishments. He confirmed that police dispersed the crowd to restore order and detained several individuals, asserting that security forces would not permit blockades on key transport arteries under any circumstances.
The disruption followed two consecutive days of unrest in the same industrial zone. Demonstrators had previously set up road blockades at the Shibu Market and Jalkuri points along the Dhaka–Narayanganj Link Road, demanding the 30,000 taka wage ceiling. Those actions led to similar altercations with police, completely severing traffic flow between Dhaka and Narayanganj for over four hours before forces restored control.
Tareq Al Mehedi, Additional Superintendent of Police (Crime and Operations), confirmed that six people were taken into police custody in connection with the Wednesday morning clashes.
By half-past twelve in the afternoon, security forces had cleared the blockades and scattered the main body of protesters. While the immediate area has returned to a calm state, heavy contingents of police and industrial security forces remain deployed across Kathelpul and surrounding intersections to prevent further flare-ups.
