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Jute and textile workers uproot Railway tracks, clash with police : 100 injured

Communications disrupted as 48-hr barricade begins

By Staff Correspondent
Jute and textile workers, tn a desperate attempt to force the government to accept their demands, uprooted railway tracks to' begin a 48-hour rail and road barricade Monday, disrupting communications across the country.
At least 100 people. Including 19 law enforcement personnel, were injured in sporadic clashes with police.
Police hurled at least 30 tear-gas shells during clashes near the Dhaka Cotton Mill at Postagola.
Rail tracks were uprooted at Tongi and KlshorcganJ. Clashes between the workers
and law enforcement personnel were reported from Dhaka, Tongi, Savar, Magura, Rajshahi and Khulna where they blocked major highways and rail lines.
Clashes at Nayarhat, Savar. accounted for the heaviest of 60 injured Including fourteen policemen and a magistrate.
The Patkal Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parishad and the Sutakal and Bastrakal Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parishad Jointly called the countrywide barricade to realise their demands which Included mainly government's ' halt of denationalisation pro-
gramme and workers' pay hike. Sramik Karmachari Sangram Parishad (SKOP) supported the barricade.
Rall and road communication was completely cut-off between the capital and the rest of the country as all inter-district passenger bus and train services were suspended. Communications were also disrupted In major Industrial belts and other parts of the country.
Thousands of passengers were stranded at railway stations, bus terminals and in other places where buses and
From Page 1 Col. 4 trains were blocked by the workers.
Most of the 77 Jute mills including 33 in public sector and 66 textile mills including 40 state-owned, were shut. A few , private sector factories operated during the blockade.
Agitating workers at the Dhaka Cotton Mills in Postagola clashed with police leaving at least 30 persons injured, including 5 policemen and a number of children.
When this correspondent visited the factory at around 1 pm, at least 20 injured persons including a number of children with bandages were seen at the premises. The factory and the adjoining Un-shed staff quarters were littered with stones and used tear-gas canntsters.
At the Dhaka-Chittagong highway thousands of jute mills workers armed with sticks and iron rods laid siege at the Kanchpur intersection.
The workers from nearby Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj and Latif Bawani, Ahmed Bawani, Karim and Taj Jute Mills from Demra held rallies throughout the day starting at 6 am.
All vehicles coming from Dhaka were stopped by the workers at the Shenarpar point about eight kilometres
from the capital. The vehicles coming towards Dhaka were blocked at the eastern side of the Kanchpur bridge about 15 kilometres from the city. The section of the highway between the two points was controlled by the agitaUng workers. Only emergency vehicles were allowed to pass through. Thousands of people, including women and children, were seen walking the distance hoping to avail transports from the other side. The workers attacked a funeral service bus of Al-Markazul Islam! — a social organisation providing funeral services — which was on a return trip from Feni after taking a dead body there earlier. The bus was heavily damaged and a number of people inside it were injured during the attack. A refrigerated truck of an Italian company (Sas-65-4164) was also attacked but was saved by some of the workers' leaders. However, the truck was detained at the spot.
Workers at Tongi laid .siege on the highway cutting off all road links with Gazipur, Mymcnsingh, Tangail and other districts. Road links between Dhaka and Narayanganj was blocked at Chashara.
All the day services of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation on Monday were suspended.
Railway track on the Tongi-Dhirasram line was uprooted by agitating workers. Railway tracks were also uprooted at Ga^hihata station near Kishoreganj. Some railway slippers were set on fire near Dhfrasram.
All the railway staff at the Pubail station were driven out by the agitating workers.
In Magura, four persons were arrested after clashes between police and protestors at the Magura Cotton Mills.
The agitating workers damaged at least 30 buses at Nayarhat and allegedly assaulted a number of passengers. They also set a motorcycle ablaze during the time. Police arrested two persons from the spot.
Our Chittagong Correspondent adds : Roads and railway communication in Chittagong was completely disrupted following the barricade.
Barricades were put up at Pahartoli, Shitakunda, Nastrabad and Kalur Ghat.
Railway office claimed that one driver and one assistant driver of a local train was eked up by the plcketers.
tsey section was disrupted, but in Lalmonlrhat section trains move normally. Railway authorities said that trains from Sylhet to Narsingdl ran without disr^llon.
Ediotorial on page 4