Readymade garment worker leaders have threatened that if the government does not ensure justice for Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity activist and trade union leader Shahidul Islam Shahid murder, they will call a countrywide strike after Eid-ul-Azha.
They have also demanded the arrest of Prince Jacquard Sweater’s authority and other miscreants who were involved in the murder of Shahidul Islam.
The leaders made the demand at a garment workers’ protest rally titled “Arrest and mete out capital punishment to the killers of worker’s leader Shahidul” held in front of the National Press Club in the capital on Tuesday. Industrial Bangladesh Council (IBC) organised the programme.
The situation is likely to become volatile in Gazipur, Ashulia, Savar and Narayanganj industrial belts following the killing of readymade garment worker Shahidul Islam Shahid, also a trade union leader, on Sunday night in front of Prince Jacquard Sweater Ltd at Tongi in Gazipur.
Kalpona Akter, executive director of Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity partnering with the largest US-based international worker rights organisation Solidarity Center, confirmed to The Business Post that Shahid was their activist and also district president of Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF).
Two workers--Mustafa Kamal, 26, and Ahmed Sharif, 35--were severely injured and admitted to Tairunnessa Memorial Medical College and Hospital in Gazipur, our district correspondent Raihanul Islam Akanda confirmed.
Workers’ leaders alleged that the attack was carried out at the behest of the Prince Jacquard authority, saying that it was a pre-planned murder because the leaders demanded payment of due wages.
Kalpona Akter, also president of BGIWF, filed a case with Tongi West Police Station, accusing six people of killing the labour leader. Officer-in-Charge (OC) of the police station Shah Alam said that police already arrested the main accused, Mazharul, and were also trying to arrest others involved with the murder.
Another leader of the Bangladesh Center for Workers' Solidarity Aminul Islam disappeared on April 4, 2012, and Tangail Police found his body on April 5, 2012. Aminul’s body bore marks of torture. The incident gained international attention.
He had last been seen alive in Ashulia, a centre of the garment industry near Dhaka. It is suspected that he was murdered because he was involved in seeking justice for the general workers of the garment sector in Bangladesh.
Aminul's murder case remains unsettled, but it gained international attention from AFL–CIO and the US State Department. The US government raised their voice several times for a proper investigation into the murder.
While speaking at the protest rally, IBC President Amirul Haque Amin said, “Shahidul’s murder was preplanned, and Prince Jacquard's authority was involved with it. We are demanding their arrest and capital punishment as soon as early.”
“If the government fails to ensure justice, workers will take to the streets after Eid,” he said, adding that workers were staging protests in all industrial zones, including Gazipur, Narayanganj, Ashulia, Savar and Chattogram.
