At least 11 people, including four policemen, were injured in a clash between garment workers and police in the capital’s Rampura yesterday.Demanding their benefits package, some 300 to 400 workers of Lyric Industries Pvt Ltd blocked one side of a road for around an hour before law enforcers tried to disperse them around 11:00am, said witnesses.The agitators threw brick chips and police responded by charging batons and firing shotgun pellets, leaving several people injured, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (media) Masudur Rahman told The Daily Star.Normalcy returned around 15 to 20 minutes later and the workers claimed that 20 of their colleagues were injured.The 11 injured took treatment at Dhaka Medical College Hospital, said Sub-Inspector Bachchu Mia, in-charge of police outpost there.The workers said the factory authorities paid their wages in advance and assured them of giving their benefits package later as the factory would be relocated to Gazipur from a building near Bangladesh Television in Rampura.However, the workers did not know when the relocation would take place and they erupted in protests, finding the factory closed on Wednesday, they alleged.Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Vice-President Mohammed Nasir claimed that the factory authorities were forced to go for the shutdown as some workers had been halting production for the past few months, demanding their benefits package and job security.The BGMEA held a meeting with the factory authorities yesterday where it was decided that the benefits package, once calculated, would be paid through the BGMEA, he added.
