20 hurt in clash at Opsonin factory

Sources said the three-hour long clashes, chase and counter chase between the two parties that started around 11:30am, turned Bogra Road area into a battlefield.

More than 2,200 workers of Opsonin, a leading pharmaceutical company and medical items producers of the country, have been agitating to fulfil their 11-point demand that include proper appointment letters, increase in wages and fixed minimum monthly wages for a long time.

The authority assured them of considering the demands after Eid-ul-Azha, but allegedly refused to fulfil them during a recent meeting between the authorities and the workers, that made the workers to call a strike in the factory.

The agitating workers brought out a procession and held demonstrations inside the Opsonin Chemical Industries factory on Bogra Road yesterday morning demanding removal of the logistics manager of the company.

Workers alleged that at one point, the management brought in a group of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD) cadres led by Zahid and Munna, who beat up several workers and fired blank shots and exploded bombs. In retaliation, the workers threw hundreds of bottles from the rooftop of the factory forcing the cadres to retreat.

Among the injured workers, Rafiq, Yusuf, Anwar, Basir, Siddik, Salam, Kabir, Amin, Shishir, Alamgir, Humayun, Khorshed, Ripon, Azad, Badsha, Afzal, Yunus and Abu Jafar were admitted to different medical centres.

Md Ali Jasim, a photojournalist of local daily Barisal Barta, was injured when he was assaulted by the workers while taking photographs.

Hundred of workers from other four Opsonin factories of Bogra Road and Rupatali area also brought out processions and held demonstrations after they received the news of the attack on the chemical factory workers, causing a two-hour long traffic jam.

Police and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) reinforcements managed to bring the situation under control at about 2:00pm.

Workers declared that they would continue the strike till Rakib Khan, one of the directors and the representative of the owners from Dhaka, sits with them for negotiations.

Logistic manager of Opsonin Group Abid Hossain Babu, however, denied the allegation of any attack on the workers from management side, claiming that workers ransacked the factory. They would shut their factories down if this situation continues, he added.