Attempts to create chaos in the country by pulling strings from across the border

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has alleged that attempts are being made to create chaos in the country by pulling strings from across the border under the guise of workers' demands. He said that no working-class person or worker brothers and sisters can ever harm their own industrial establishments. Yet a certain quarter is going to various factories and carrying out vandalism and destructions.

The Prime Minister made this allegation at a roadside rally held at Katakhali intersection on the Khulna-Mongla highway in Bagerhat on Thursday noon.

The Prime Minister said that the industries and factories that have been built in the country over the past 50 years are among the main sources of Bangladesh's foreign currency earnings. Lakhs of mothers, sisters, and working-class people are employed in these industrial establishments. These industries and factories are the wealth of the country, the wealth of the people.

Recently, garment workers staged non-stop agitations in the capital Dhaka and surrounding districts demanding a minimum wage of Tk 30,000. During this time, the agitators clashed with police. Vandalism was carried out on various infrastructures.

Referring to these activities as attempts to destroy industrial establishments, the Prime Minister said, "We have seen in various newspapers and media that some unruly individuals are going to various factories and carrying out vandalism and attempting to destroy industrial establishments. I believe that no working brother or sister can ever harm industry."

In his speech, the Prime Minister alleged, pointing toward the Awami League government, that a certain quarter could not change the fortunes of the country's people over the past 15-16 years. They had snatched away people's voting rights and looted the country's wealth and assets and siphoned them abroad. Those who were forced to flee the country in the face of a mass uprising are now pulling strings from across the border and attempting to create a chaotic situation in the country.
The Prime Minister said the new minimum wage for garment workers would be determined within one to two months. He said, "Worker brothers and sisters have some demands regarding their wages, and the government is aware of the matter. A wage board has already been formed to consider and review their demands. The board has also started working. InshaAllah, the new minimum wage will be determined within the next one to two months so that worker brothers and sisters can live well."

The roadside rally was presided over by Bagerhat district BNP leader Barrister Zakir Hossain. Also present were Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Bridges, and Railways Sheikh Rabiul Alam; State Minister of Shipping Md. Razib Ahsan; State Minister of Environment and Climate Change Dr. Shaikh Faridul Islam; district BNP leaders Somanath De, Kapil Krishna Mandal, and other leaders of the local BNP and its affiliated organizations.

After the roadside rally, the Prime Minister visited the shrine of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (RA). There he participated in prayers and supplications.

Earlier in the morning, the Prime Minister attended a ceremony for the signing of a memorandum of understanding on economic and infrastructural cooperation between Invest Bangladesh and the China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) at Mongla Port. Later, he laid the foundation stone of the Mongla Port expansion and modernization project.