BANGLADESH POLICE FIRE TEAR GAS AS GARMENT WORKERS PROTEST OVER WAGES

Police in Bangladesh fired tear gas and used stun grenades on Wednesday to disperse garment workers protesting for higher wages, police and witnesses said. Hundreds of factories across the country have shut after days of unrest, during what has been described as a crucial period for spring and summer export orders, raising concerns about shipment delays. Violence was reported in several industrial areas on the outskirts of Dhaka following days of demonstrations in the capital. In Fatullah, in the Narayanganj district, dozens of people were injured in clashes between protesters and police, local media reported. Prothom Alo, Bangladesh's largest Bengali-language daily, reported that police arrested several protesters in Fatullah.

Workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 takas, about $245, up from the current 12,500 takas. They say rising living costs and inflation have eroded their purchasing power. Bangladesh's garment industry employs about four million workers, most of them women from rural areas, and earns about $40 billion a year in exports. The country has around 2,500 garment factories in total. Workers also blocked a major highway in the Gazipur district, another significant industrial hub.

About 100 factories remained shut in Ashulia, near Savar outside Dhaka, according to Mominul Islam Bhuiyan, superintendent of Ashulia Industrial Police. More than 10,000 police officers were deployed in Dhaka's Mirpur area, described as an epicentre of the recent unrest, according to Mahidul Islam, a joint police commissioner. The government has responded to the wage demands by forming a new wage board. Its chairman, Syed Azad Subhani, said workers would receive their first salaries under the new pay scale in January.