DHAKA, Bangladesh
Police used batons to disperse scores of garment workers protesting for better wages in Bangladesh’s capital Saturday, leaving at least a dozen injured, police and witnesses said.
The violence occurred in Dhaka’s Uttara residential district after dozens of workers smashed shops, barricaded a major road and hurled stones at police, local police chief Shafiqul Alam told reporters.
The wage dispute has triggered a series of violent incidents in recent months. A government committee is trying to settle the issue.
The workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of 3,000 takas (US$44;), up from the current 930 takas (US$13).
Bangladesh has more than 3,000 garment factories employing about 1.8 million workers, mostly women.
The impoverished country earns more than US$7 billion each year from textile exports, mainly to the United States and Europe, according to Bangladesh’s Export Promotion Bureau.
Saturday’s protest disrupted traffic for hours on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, Alam said.
The protesters took positions in alleys along the highway after they had been dispersed, local reporter Zahedul Islam told The Associated Press by phone from the scene.
Police cordoned off the area, he said.
He said hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the highway, with police diverting them to alternate routes.
