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At least 50 hurt as garment workers and police clash in Dhaka's Uttara

Workers demanding unpaid wages and a higher minimum pay blocked the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway once more. Police used tear gas, water cannons and batons, and a constable was left with a broken arm.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 11:46

Garment workers outside Dhaka. File photo: Fahad Faisal / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Fahad Faisal, via Wikimedia Commons

At least 50 people, including police personnel, were injured in Dhaka's Uttara on Saturday when a clash broke out between garment workers and law enforcers during a fresh round of protests over unpaid wages and low pay.

The clash began around 11:30am near Rajlakshmi, after workers tried to block the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, police said. Officers used tear gas, sound grenades, water cannons and batons to disperse the crowd, while protesters threw bricks and stones.

Workers from factories in Uttarkhan and Dakshinkhan began gathering from about 10:00am at the Kasaibari, Jamtala and Azampur railway gates and near the Holy Mill intersection, before assembling on Road 13 in Sector 4, according to police.

Rezaul Karim, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Uttara division, said police first asked the demonstrators to clear the road, but the situation escalated when they attacked officers. He put the number of injured police at 17 to 18, including an Industrial Police constable whose hand was broken.

Two Industrial Police vehicles and a motorcycle were vandalised, and a constable was assaulted, said Sadikur Rahman, assistant commissioner of the Industrial Police. Workers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 30 of their colleagues were hurt.

The workers are demanding the settlement of overdue wages, a minimum monthly basic salary of Tk 30,000 and an increase in pay. Protests at several points in Uttara began on 12 October and continued through the week, disrupting traffic on one of the city's busiest gateways.

Rezaul Karim said the government had set up a committee on the wage issue and was working to form a wage board, and that repeated road blockades by workers from a few factories were causing public suffering. He claimed that workers from a factory owned by an Awami League leader made up most of the protesters. Police said legal steps were under way.

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