Garment worker beaten and injured on suspicion of theft in own factory; colleagues demonstrate

Tension has spread in the Konabari area of Gazipur city following the beating and critical injury of a garment factory worker on suspicion of theft. In protest of the incident, co-workers of the factory staged a demonstration on Saturday (June 28) afternoon. The name and identity of the injured young man are not yet known. However, his age is approximately 25 years and he is primarily known to be a worker of Greenland Garments Limited.

According to workers and local residents, when the young man entered the Greenland Garments Limited factory located beside the Kashimpur Road in Konabari at around 3:00 am on Friday night, the factory security guards detained him on suspicion of theft. Later, his hands and feet were tied inside the factory and he was beaten mercilessly. When his physical condition deteriorated in the morning, the factory authorities took him to Dhaka Medical College Hospital. Currently, he is undergoing treatment in the ICU.

When news of this incident spread, anger erupted among the workers on Saturday afternoon. The angry workers started demonstrating in front of the factory and surrounding areas. At one point, they blocked the road in the Konabari BSCIC area and protested. To keep the situation under control, advance leave was declared for several factories. Salauddin Ahmed, officer-in-charge (OC) of Konabari Police Station under Gazipur Metropolitan Police, said that people of the factory beat and injured a young man on suspicion of theft. Following this incident, the workers started a demonstration.

Police have been deployed at the scene to control the situation.