DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets Saturday in a bid to subdue garment workers who rioted for a second day in protest against low pay as unrest spread to areas outside Dhaka, police said.

Workers fought pitched street battles with riot police in the manufacturing hub of Ashulia, north of Dhaka, as union officials rejected a government-backed pay hike as “insultingly low.”

“Over 20,000 workers walked off the job and many clashed with police, hurling stones and rocks. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse them,” police inspector Nasir Ahmed told AFP.

The unrest came as Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told “workers to accept the pay hike and return to work,” threatening tough action against those who disobeyed her orders.

“She has warned that no act of violence or sabotages will be tolerated in the key garment industry. The instigators will be brought to book,” her spokesman Mahbubul Haq Shakil said.

Rioters also burnt tyres, blocked a key road linking Dhaka with northern Bangladesh, attacked factories and forced police to run for cover, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

The factories have announced a shutdown in response and “violence has ebbed but the situation is still tense,” Ahmed said.

Police said at least seven law-enforcers including Ashulia’s police chief were injured in the violence — all hit by rocks thrown by protesters while the English-language newspaper the Daily Star put the injury toll at around 100.

At least 10,000 workers also blockaded a key road in Narayanganj, south of Dhaka, a police constable said, adding the labourers were holding a peaceful protest amid a heavy police presence.

The protests come a day after violence erupted in a slew of locations across the Bangladeshi capital, prompting riot police to respond against the workers with baton charges and tear gas.

The workers looted and ransacked factories, set vehicles afire and smashed shops and cars, leaving a trail of devastation.

The protests are in response to the government’s announcement Tuesday that the minimum monthly wage for garment workers would rise by 80 percent to 3,000 taka (43 dollars) from 1,662 taka — the lowest industry salary worldwide.

Most of the unions have spurned the offer, saying the workers need at least 5,000 taka a month to ensure a minimum standard of living in the face of surging food prices.

They have threatened to keep up nationwide protests until the government meets their demands.

Leading union leader Mosherafa Mish, who heads the Garment Workers Unity Forum and who has been at the forefront of efforts to win better wages and working conditions for employees, called the pay hike “insultingly low”.

“The government should not intimidate the workers. The protests are a normal and spontaneous reaction to the government’s sham wage hike. They are holding protests because that’s the only way their voices can be heard,” she said.

She alleged police were seeking to intimidate union leaders with death threats, including against herself, and have raided some of their houses.

Walid Hossain, a spokesman of Dhaka police, said at least two union leaders and 25 workers had been detained for their alleged role in Friday’s violence. He denied that authorities had made any death threats against union leaders.

“This is complete rubbish,” he said.

Garment is the main lever of Bangladesh economy, accounting for 80 percent of its annual exports. The country’s 4,500 garment factories employ some three million workers, around 40 percent of its industrial workforce.

A host of global retailers import garments in bulk from Bangladesh, including Wal-Mart, Tesco, Zara, Marks & Spencer and Carrefour. — AFP

The government said Tuesday it would raise the minimum wage from 1,662 taka, the lowest industry salary worldwide, to 3,000 taka (43 dollars) — below the 5,000 taka demanded by some unions.

“I hope that garment workers will be happy with this decision,” Labour Minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said, adding that the new wage would be implemented from November 1 this year.

“We know the industry has many problems — irregular power supply, infrastructure limitations — which is why we have not pressured manufacturers to increase pay more,” Hossain added.

Bangladesh is in the grip of its worst-ever utilities crisis, with a daily shortfall of 2,000 megawatts of electricity hitting industry, especially the export-orientated garment sector.

Garment manufacturers, who have staunchly resisted any significant wage increase, agreed late Wednesday to the terms of the wage deal after lobbying for delayed implementation to safeguard the price of current orders.

“We will encourage all our members to implement this wage hike,” said Abdul Salam Morshedy, head of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Export Association which represents the majority of the country’s 4,500 garment factories.

Unrest over low wages has caused months of supply disruptions, with workers — who make clothing for leading Western brands — taking to the streets in protests that have seen factories ransacked and led to clashes with police.

“For the good of the sector as a whole, we agree to this new wage,” said Badruddazaman Nizam, a workers’ representative at the wage board.

Nearly a dozen left-leaning unions organised a protest in Dhaka Wednesday, but turnout was low.

The garment industry enjoyed record sales last month, with Bangladesh shipping 1.72 billion dollars of goods in June, the highest monthly export in the country’s 40-year history. — AFP

BIRMINGHAM (AFP) – Andrew Strauss and Jonathan Trott made hundreds as England bounced back from last weekend’s shock defeat to beat Bangladesh by 144 runs at Edgbaston here on Monday and so take the three-match one-day international series 2-1.

England captain Strauss made an ODI best of 154 and Trott 110, his first hundred at this level, in a huge total of 347 for seven.

Their second-wicket stand of 250 was an England record for any ODI wicket, topping the 226 shared by Strauss and Andrew Flintoff against the West Indies at Lord’s in 2004.

England’s total was their second highest in a 50 overs per side match after the 391 they made against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge in 2005 when Strauss — both the man-the-match and the series — posted his previous best of 152.

It was also the first time two England batsmen had both made hundreds in the same ODI innings since Alastair Cook and Ian Bell achieved the feat against India at the Rose Bowl in 2007.

Bangladesh dramatically beat England for the first time in any format in 21 matches with a five-run win at Bristol on Saturday that ended a run of 24 straight defeats against all opponents.

“It was a good way to bounce back after Bristol,” Strauss told Sky Sports.

“We were obviously very disappointed with our performance there and wanted to put it right today.”

As for his own innings, he added: “I’ve been hitting the ball really well throughout the one dayers without translating it into big scores and I was very determined to do that today.”

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza, who finished with fine figures of three wickets for 31 runs in his maximum 10 overs, was at a loss to explain the change in his side’s performance.

“It was (disappointing). We played poorly as a team. It is very difficult to say why.

“Strauss and Trott played beautifully. We need to bowl in the right areas but we didn’t do it.”

Bangladesh complete their tour with games against Scotland and Ireland and 26-year-old seamer Mortaza added: “We have to play well and win those matches.”

The Tigers, chasing a formidable target of 348, seemed they would need a substantial innings from dashing opener Tamim Iqbal.

But having made a typically brisk 16, Tamim was deceived by an Ajmal Shahzad slower ball and skied to Luke Wright at mid-off.

Then 20 for one became 24 for two as Imrul Kayes, Tamim’s fellow left-handed opener who made 76 at Bristol, fell for four when gloving a lifting Shahzad delivery through to wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter.

There was no way back for Bangladesh and they were bowled out for 203 with five overs remaining.

Strauss and Trott were united after four balls with England one for one when Mortaza clean bowled Kieswetter for nought as he made the ball cut sharply in off the pitch.

But fellow seamer Shafiul Islam undid much of his captain’s good work by sending down nine overs for an expensive 97 runs.

Trott’s innings also meant he’d bettered his ODI-best score for the second time in successive innings after his 94 at Bristol nearly prevented Bangladesh’s victory.

Ravi Bopara, recalled after Ian Bell broke his left foot fielding at Bristol, took England’s total past 300 with a blistering 45 not out off just 16 balls featuring four sixes — including three off Shafiul in the last over.

Medium-pacer Bopara also collected a quartet of cheap wickets for a career-best return of four for 38.

Earlier, even Mortaza didn’t escape being pulled for six by Strauss, who went into the 90s by driving Abdur Razzaq straight over the ropes.

Strauss completed his fourth ODI century off 106 balls before Trott joined him on three figure by cover-driving Shafiul for his 12th four in 112 balls.

Their stand, made at better than a run-a-ball ended when Trott was well-caught by a diving Shakib at mid-wicket off Mortaza.

Strauss though went to 150 by square-cutting Shafiul for his 16th four before he was out when he sliced Rubel to Shakib at point.

In all, he faced 140 balls with five sixes and 16 fours. — AFP

A police official said about 2,000 employees demonstrated over low pay in the Ashulia industrial area, where hundreds of factories temporarily closed after riots in June.

“The workers were demanding higher wages at one sweater factory, which prompted the owners to shut down the plant indefinitely,” deputy police chief of Dhaka district Monowar Hossain said.

The workers threw stones and bricks at the factory, he said, adding owners of about 10 other nearby factories also shut to stop the protests from spreading.

Bangladesh’s garment workers, who make clothes for major Western brands such as Walmart and H & M, have been demanding wages of at least 5,000 taka (70 dollars) a month. The current minimum wage is just 25 dollars.

The government has said it would raise the salaries of the country’s three million garment workers by the end of July and urged them to be patient.

Garments accounted for nearly 80 percent of Bangladesh’s 15.56 billion dollars of exports last year. The factories employ around 40 percent of the industrial workforce. — AFP

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Security forces arrested more than 200 activists Sunday, according to police and news reports, as Bangladesh’s main opposition party led a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike to protest alleged government misrule.

General strikes have been a common opposition tactic in Bangladesh, a fragile parliamentary democracy since nine years of military rule ended in 1990. But Sunday’s strike was the first in 3 1/2 years, signaling that political bickering may return to the streets.

Several people were injured in clashes between opposition supporters and the ruling Awami League’s student wing near a university in Dhaka, private ATN Bangla television reported.

Footage from another private station, ETV, showed security officials kicking in the door of an opposition leader’s home. Once inside, they beat supporters gathered there; the leader himself had previously been detained.

The unrest comes as frustration has been growing in Bangladesh over frequent power cuts and deteriorating law and order, among other issues.

The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, called Sunday’s strike to protest alleged Awami League misrule. Zia — who has long been locked in a battle for power with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina — accused the government of suppressing the opposition and failing to control commodity prices or improve law and order.

About 10,000 security forces were deployed in the capital and schools and businesses were closed, witnesses said. Only a few tricycle rickshaws plied the city’s usually clogged streets.

Authorities erected barbed-wire fences in parts of Dhaka, and police Commissioner A.K.M. Shahidul Haque said police would not allow any rallies to block major streets.

Walid Hossain, a Dhaka Metropolitan Police official, said at least 167 people were arrested in the capital. ATN Bangla said dozens were arrested in several other districts.

Those arrested included a former Cabinet minister and three senior aides of Zia, the Daily Star newspaper reported.

Khandaker Delwar Hossain, a senior leader of Zia’s party, announced nationwide demonstrations for Monday to protest the arrests and beatings of its activists.

Among the strike’s targets were recent deals with India made by Hasina’s administration, Zia said. The opposition maintains that those agreements — including use of Bangladesh ports by India and Bangladesh’s import of Indian power — are against national interests.

In Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second-largest city, the strike disrupted the transport of goods from the country’s main port, said Osman Gani Mansoor, a local journalist.

An interim government took power in early 2007 and imposed a state of emergency after weeks of violence between the political camps led by Zia and Hasina. It then arrested both leaders, but later released them ahead of elections that Hasina’s alliance won overwhelmingly.

Zia’s opposition coalition has since boycotted parliament, saying the ruling alliance has prevented it from bringing up the people’s problems.

Some citizens were critical of Sunday’s political strife.

“This is unexpected. We don’t want this conflict again,” Abdur Razzak, a retired banker, said in Dhaka’s Uttara residential district.

“It’s better if they discuss issues in parliament instead of clashing on the streets,” he said. — AP

In the capital Dhaka, security forces fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of opposition activists as they tried to hold marches along major roads, police said.

An opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker was hurt when supporters and opponents of the strike clashed at Dhaka University, police spokesman Walid Hossain said, adding the man was rushed to hospital and later arrested.

At least 12,000 policemen and the elite Rapid Action Battalion were deployed in Dhaka to try to avert violence as the shutdown brought much of the capital of 13 million people and the country to a standstill.

Police said the strike had halted transport throughout the country and disrupted business operations. In Dhaka, most private offices, shops, schools and colleges were closed.

The BNP had called the strike to protest against what it says is the Awami League government’s failure to provide basic services such as power, water and gas and against “arbitrary” arrests and harassment of opposition supporters.

The Awami League swept to power in January 2009 after a landslide election victory on December 29, 2008. The BNP, which ruled the country twice after democracy was restored in 1990, was reduced to a small opposition.

Police used batons to disperse opposition activists, footage shown by private television channel Bangla Vision showed. The channel also reported that several people had been injured.

At least 96 people, including two former BNP ministers, were arrested during the strike and 120 activists were taken into custody hours before it began.

“We arrested former public works minister Mirza Abbas this morning on charges of torching vehicles,” said the police chief of Dhaka’s main commercial district, Toffazzal Hossain.

Opposition activists hurled small bombs and pieces of brick at police but there were no casualties, he told AFP.

Thousands of BNP activists demonstrated in Dhaka in small groups. Police cordoned off the party’s main office and banned marches in roads linking government offices and ministers’ homes to the airport.

Several smaller parties, including the main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, supported the strike.

The southeastern city of Chittagong, the country’s main port and home to five million people, was cut off by lack of transport and at least 10 people were arrested for smashing the windows of a bus, police and officials said.

Big jute fibre mills and shops were closed in the southern city of Khulna but there was no trouble, police inspector Jamal Uddin said.

Earlier in the decade, repeated strikes, blockades and protests disrupted business life in Bangladesh, costing the impoverished country millions of dollars as the two parties battled for control.

But the strikes came to a halt in 2007 when the country came under emergency rule and the army-backed government sought to bring political stability. — AFP

Police initially said the fire, which destroyed six large residential buildings in the old quarter of Dhaka, was caused by an electrical fault.

“The wedding feast was being cooked on makeshift stoves right next to a chemical warehouse, which heated up the extremely flammable chemicals,” the official investigation report said.

“The heated chemicals exploded, which was the cause of the devastating fire. Then the burning chemicals quickly spread down the street like lava of a volcanic eruption,” it said.

Investigators said two electrical transformers exploded after the blaze engulfed them.

More than 40 members of the wedding party were among the dead.

The toll went so high because the old part of Dhaka is one of the city’s most densely populated areas and building regulations are rarely enforced, the investigation said. — AFP

COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh (AFP) – At least 53 people have been killed after days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides in southeastern Bangladesh, police said Tuesday.

The country’s flood warning centre said most of the southeast had experienced heavy rainfall during the past 24 hours, with 24.2 centimetres (9.5 inches) falling in many areas.

“We’ve found 48 bodies, including six soldiers, in the Cox’s Bazaar region so far,” said the district police chief Nibhas Chandra Majhi.

Five more bodies have been recovered in the neighbouring hill district of Bandarban, police said.

Most of the dead were washed away by flash floods or buried alive by landslides as Cox’s Bazaar was pounded on Monday by some of the heaviest rains in decades, Majhi told AFP.

“It was a huge flash flood, it washed everything in its path away,” he said. “At least 20,000 people have been trapped by the flash floods. We cannot reach them as the roads are flooded or blocked with mud.”

The worst affected location, Teknaf — which is on the border with Myanmar and home to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Rohingya refugees — was where at least 34 of the bodies were recovered.

Rescue workers say the death toll was high because many residents live on hillsides in makeshift houses.

Around 15,000 Rohingya refugees living in camps — both legal and illegal — around Teknaf have also been affected by the floods, Firoz Salauddin, the government’s spokesman on Rohingya issues told AFP.

Described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities on Earth, thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state stream across the border into Bangladesh every year.

Bangladesh recognises 28,000 Rohingya as registered refugees, who live and receive aid at an official UN camp in Kutupalong. This figure is a fraction of the 200,000 to 300,000 unofficial refugees, according to government estimates.

“I’ve never seen anything like it — water was coming from everywhere, hundreds of bamboo shacks have been washed away by the rains,” Mojibur Rahman, a Rohingya refugee who lives in an official refugee camp, told AFP.

The refugee camps are often set up on newly cleared forest land and are vulnerable to landslides in heavy rain, local official say.

Conditions are dire in the unofficial camps where people have been without food for two days since the heavy rain began, said Manzural Islam, an unregistered Rohingya refugee.

“Flash floods are the worst thing that could have happened to us,” said Islam, who fled Myanmar last year.

“People are living under the sky and we haven’t had food for two days as we can’t cook in the rain with no shelter,” he told AFP by telephone.

Down the coast in Cox’s Bazaar, an army barracks at the foot of a hill was destroyed by a landslide, with all of the six soldiers on duty and at least 20 army vehicles buried in the mud.

Weather officials have forecast further rains due to a major depression in the Bay of Bengal.

Landslides triggered by heavy rains are common in Bangladesh’s southeastern hill districts where thousands of poor people live on deforested hill slopes. — AFP

The country’s worst fire in recent memory began Thursday night in the narrow alleys of the old section of Dhaka, crammed with new additions to decades-old buildings, when an electrical transformer exploded soon after a rainstorm swept the city, police officer Abul Kalam said.

“There were screams, shouts for help and total chaos,” Kalam said.

Most of the dead were trapped in two or three residential buildings, said government administrator Mohibul Haque. He said the death toll could rise because some were still feared trapped in the rubble.

Mohammad Gulzar was serving beverages to dozens of guests who had just arrived in his small apartment for his daughter’s wedding reception when they were jolted by a loud blast. The building was quickly engulfed by fire, and the guests tried to run outside but found themselves trapped as the blaze engulfed the gate of the five-story building.

At least 15 of Gulzar’s guests and family members died.

“Why me, Allah? What wrong have I committed?” Gulzar, 50, cried as he sat in front of rows of corpses covered with white shrouds on the road outside his burned apartment.

Gulzar’s daughter, Runa Aktar, survived because she was at a beauty parlor to prepare for the ceremony.

Mohammad Faruk, who lived nearby, lost all 16 family members — his wife, children, grandchildren and parents. He survived because he stayed late at work.

“I should have come home early,” Faruk said, sobbing. “Maybe I could have saved some of them.”

Fire official Abdus Salam said firefighters were delayed because their vehicles couldn’t fit through the narrow streets and there were no hydrants or other sources of water.

Firefighters and residents carried victims to hospitals on three-wheeled rickshaws as relatives wailed.

The state-run Dhaka Medical College Hospital was overwhelmed with burn victims. Burn unit chief Shamanta Lal Sen said it was the worst disaster he had seen in his 40-year career. His hospital division struggled to care for the casualties with available beds for only about 25 people.

Hospital authorities appealed to the public for donations of blood to treat the injured, some in critical condition.

Bangladesh will hold a day of national mourning Saturday when flags will be lowered to half-staff and special prayers will be recited at places of worship across the country.

In 2007, a blaze in an 11-story building in central Dhaka housing two TV stations and a newspaper killed six people, including several who jumped to their deaths from the burning offices. Others were rescued from the rooftop by firefighters using ropes and steel ladders. — AP

DHAKA (AFP) – Rescuers called off the search for survivors Friday as the death toll from one of Bangladesh’s worst fires rose to 108 after flames ripped through a packed neighbourhood of Dhaka, officials said.

The blaze raged for three hours, destroying a row of multi-storey apartment buildings and trapping hundreds of residents in Dhaka’s densely populated Kayettuli area, city police chief A.K.M Shahidul Haq told AFP.

“At least 108 people have died including those who expired in hospitals. The toll may rise as quite a few are in critical condition,” district administrator Muhibul Haque said.

The blaze has been put out and a search-and-rescue effort halted after firefighters scoured “every inch of the fire-hit buildings”, Dhaka fire department chief Abu Nayeem told AFP.

“A wedding party was on the roof of one building and we think this is why the number of casualties is so high,” Nayeem said, adding that highly flammable stock, including chemicals, in a string of small shops had fuelled the blaze.

“At least 41 bodies have been pulled out from the wedding party building,” he said.

One witness told AFP: “The bride was spared from the fire as she had been at the local beauty salon.”

Hundreds of people were trapped in burning buildings for hours as rescue workers struggled to contain the blaze, their work hampered by the narrow lanes of the crowded residential area.

Nayeem said the fire had been caused by an electrical fault and took grip before firefighters could access the area.

“At the same time, cooking for the wedding feast was going on at the ground floor staircase of the wedding party building, which fuelled the flames,” he added.

“People joining the wedding party were trapped in the building and suffocated or burnt as they could not come out because the cooking spread the fire through the staircase.”

At least seven buildings were engulfed, Nayeem said.

“The temperature and fumes became unbearable because of the chemicals,” he said, adding that a bakery with several large gas burners and a string of small shops selling cheap, flammable plastic goods had also caught fire.

“We struggled to get inside due to the narrow stairways of the very old buildings, it is almost impossible for us to get firefighting equipment into the area,” he said.

All off-duty medical personnel were called in to Dhaka Medical College, whose hospital was overwhelmed by the rush of victims, said Shahidul Bari, a specialist at the burns unit.

He said 12 bodies had been received at the morgue soon after the fire began. Another 100 people had been admitted with severe burns and smoke inhalation.

“Our unit is full and more patients are pouring in. It’s a disaster of huge proportions,” Bari said.

“Patients are being treated in the corridors and still more are coming in. We are sending the most critically ill to the hospital’s emergency units,” he said.

Fires due to short-circuits, substandard wiring and electrical faults are common in Bangladesh, where building regulations are rarely enforced. — AFP