DHAKA
\nStriking Bangladesh garment workers clashed with police on Saturday near the capital as factories reopened in defiance of a protest campaign demanding a near-tripling of wages.
\nBangladesh\u2019s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 per cent of the South Asian country\u2019s $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world\u2019s top names in fashion including Levi\u2019s, Zara and H&M.
\n But conditions are dire for many of the sector\u2019s four million workers, the vast majority of whom are women whose monthly wages start at 8,300 taka ($75).<\/p>\n
Police said some 600 businesses shuttered over the week had reopened in areas worst-hit by the strike, which saw some factories ransacked and set alight. But clashes broke out in the industrial town of Ashulia, west of the capital Dhaka, after around 10,000 workers attempted to prevent their colleagues from returning to their shifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hurled stones and bricks at officers and factories and tried to block roads,\u201d Ashulia police chief Mohammad Sarowar Alam said. \u201cWe dispersed them by firing tear gas,\u201d he said, adding that 1,500 security forces personnel had been deployed there and in nearby Savar to keep order.<\/p>\n
A 35-year-old woman was critically injured when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at hundreds of protesters at Sreepur, some 60 kilometres north of Dhaka, police inspector Ibrahim Khalil said. Imran Khan, the woman\u2019s nephew, said she had been struck by rubber bullets on the face three times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA Striking Bangladesh garment workers clashed with police on Saturday near the capital as factories reopened in defiance of a protest campaign demanding a near-tripling of wages. Bangladesh\u2019s 3,500 garment factories account for around 85 per cent of the South Asian country\u2019s $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world\u2019s top names in fashion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-366309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n