Workers of a garment factory in Mirpur-11 said rod-wielding outsiders entered their workplace and assaulted them while they were waging a silent protest for a raise in minimum wages.

At least 60 workers were injured in the attack. 

The RMG workers then took to the streets and ransacked the factory in protest of the attack, our correspondents report from the spot.

As of 1:30pm, the entirety of Mirpur 11 was barricaded, the metro station locked and law enforcement personnel were seen turning vehicles and people away.

Workers told one of our correspondents that around 9:30am a large group of outsiders entered the factory wielding sticks and rods and started threatening the workers, and a scuffle ensued.

The outsiders had driven them out of the building and continued the assault on the streets in front of law enforcers, the workers said.

A woman who had carried injured coworkers to the hospital shows her bloodied scarf. She said her female coworker was hit on the head on the factory floor by outsiders. Photo: Zyma Islam

Workers, choosing to remain unnamed, claimed the people who assaulted them were ruling party men and that the factory management was involved in bringing them.

They were attacked right on the factory floor because they had stopped work today and were sitting at their workdesks abstaining from work, waging a silent protest for a raise in the minimum wages.

Around 60 workers received treatment at Islami Bank hospital in Mirpur, hospital staffers said.

Following the incident, ruling party men and women were seen patrolling the streets wielding rods, and they told this newspaper that they were called to the spot because they were told that BNP-Jamaat men were inciting the workers and destabilising the situation.