United News of Bangladesh

Vehicular movement on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway remained suspended for three hours as the workers of a ceramics factory blocked the highway in Gazipur’s Sreepur upazila on Sunday morning, demanding arrears and other benefits. Several hundred workers of RAK Ceramic Ltd, took to the street around 7am at Jaina Bazar area of the upazila, halting vehicular movement. It created a long tailback on both sides of the highway, causing immense suffering to commuters travelling to different destinations. Tensions escalated when members of law enforcement agencies attempted to clear the road around 9:30 am. A chase and counter-chase ensued between the police and protesting workers. To disperse the demonstrators, police fired teargas shells and sound grenades. After around two hours of blockade, security forces intervened in an effort to remove the workers from the highway, leading to clashes. Officer-in-charge of Sreepur Police Station Mohammad Abdul Barik said police from the local station, along with a large number of industrial police personnel, arrived at the scene and tried to convince the workers to leave peacefully. “But the workers started throwing brick chips at the police. To bring the situation under control, teargas shells and sound grenades were used,” he said. However, the vehicular movement came to normal around 10am following as the workers left the road after police action.