A journalist of a private television channel was allegedly beat up by police during a chase and counter chase with protesting garment workers on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway in Gazipur today.

The injured journalist Monirul Islam is a Gazipur correspondent of Somoy TV, our district correspondent reports.

“Despite repeatedly saying that I am a journalist of Somoy TV, police attacked me with iron rods while they were dispersing the protesters at Signboard area,” Monirul Islam said.

He is undergoing treatment at a local clinic till last reported at 12:45pm.

As a part of the ongoing unrest in Savar and Gazipur, the workers today blocked different points of the highway several times from 9:00am to 11:00am which created severe traffic congestion, said Inspector Rofiqul Islam of Gazipur Industrial Police.

“We dispersed the workers using tear-gas shells,” he told The Daily Star.

WHAT ARE THE WORKERS DEMANDING?

The workers have alleged that the monthly wage in the seventh grade increased to Tk 8,000 from Tk 5,300 as per the latest gazette published by the government last year. But, the salary of the workers in other grades did not increase at the same rate.

The salary hike for the entry-level workers was more than that of their senior operators, who have been working for more than seven to eight years. The new wage has been effective from December 1. Major disparity in the salary hike was noticed in the third and fourth grades as their salaries were not raised like that of entry-level workers.

In most of the grades, other than the seventh, only Tk 500 was raised in the new salary structure, whereas an entry-level worker's salary had increased by Tk 2,700 at one go.