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Hundreds and thousands of passengers suffered on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway for hours due to a clash between the security guards and the workers at the Sinha Textile Group (STG) that allegedly claimed three lives and injured hundreds Wednesday.
The agitated workers ransacked all the plants of the STG and the Opex group, a sister concern of the STG, including weaving and dyeing, washing plants, garment unit, knitting and dyeing, 10 to 12 private cars, central server of computer section, the workers said.
"We narrowly saved our lives as we jumped from the third floor of the building of the Opex," said Raju and Milon, two workers of the Opex Group while talking to the FE.
The onlookers, workers and on-duty police on the spot said the incident took place at the entrance of the STG at around 6:30 am when some workers of this industrial unit were entering their working place one by one.
The security personnel at the check point at the entrance gate of the industrial unit were checking the identity cards of the workers, the onlookers said. At one stage, a security guard whose identity could not be ascertained, challenged a worker, Ratan, claiming that he had stolen a piece of cloth earlier.
"This is the beginning of the incident and later the security guards allegedly attacked the workers with iron rods and stabbed a woman worker Neela of the STG unit on her chest," said Shariful, a worker of the unit. On hearing the hue and cry, some 30,000 workers of the STG group and 15,000 others from the Opex Group thronged the entrance gate and attacked the security guards. In the melee, more than 500 workers were injured, the workers said.
The agitated workers ransacked the passenger buses of Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Comilla, Dhaka-Narayanganj and Dhaka-Narsingdi highways during the incident.
The road communication on these routes was suspended from 6:30 am to 4:30 pm. As a result passengers suffered a lot as they remained trapped in a seemingly unending traffic gridlock.
The goods laden trucks bound for Chittagong, Sylhet and Comilla from Dhaka were seen stranded for hours on the roads as platoons of police were occupying the roads ready for action to bring back normalcy in the entire area.
"We are cut off from the rest of the world as the agitating workers have destroyed the information technology (IT) server centre," said the in-charge of the IT of the STG M Mahfuzur Rahman. It will take at least five days to restore the system.
Director administration of the STG Delwar Hossain said the whole incident took place over a very small matter.
He said the production of the units might start from Saturday next.
"We do not have any idea about the total loss due to this unexpected incident. We will assess the loss within a couple of days," Delwar said.
"We will form a committee to investigate into the matter within a day or two," said additional deputy commissioner of the Narayanganj district Alamgir Hossain who visited the spot after the incident.
A security personnel requesting anonymity said, "I saw my colleague being killed in front of me and some other colleagues might face the same fate during this unprecedented incident," .
He said at least three persons are believed have been killed in the incident, but their bodies might have been removed from the spot.
Some of the injured security personnel who were groaning in pain and waiting for treatment for hours were identified as Anju Mia, Monirul, Chanchal Kumar, Ruhul Amin, Hafizul, Delwar, Munnash, Firoz and Lablu Shikdar.
Huge contingent of additional police from Dhaka and nearby districts and outposts were deployed on the spot to bring back normalcy in the area.
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