Prothom Alo (September 14) emphasises the importance of the garment sector in Bangladesh and favours labour rights.
BSF killings
In the last two weeks, reportedly, the Border Security Force (BSF) shot two Bangladeshis attempting to cross the India-Bangladesh border — 16-year-old Swarna Das and 14-year-old Jayanta Kumar Singh. With bilateral relations at a low between the two nations since the ousting of Sheikh Hasina in August, the Bangladesh press says, “To say this is unacceptable would be the grossest understatement” (Dhaka Tribune, September 11). According to Ain o Salish Kendra, a legal aid and human rights organisation in Bangladesh, 594 Bangladeshis have been killed by the BSF between 2009 and 2023.
Prothom Alo columnist Kamal Ahmed says, “The list of what has been given to India is very long. The list of what has been received in return is not only extremely short, but lacks in fairness in many instances.” Dhaka Tribune editorial says that “nothing that can change the fact that numerous innocent Bangladeshis, most of them poor rural dwelling citizens, have lost their lives due to the unprovoked cruelty displayed by the BSF” and so, “the ramifications of this callous behaviour can simply not be brushed aside.”
The Daily Star (September 11) believes “BSF border killings remain a significant obstacle to maintaining good relations between Bangladesh and India”. Actions such as these are not suggestive of “a friendly neighbour… as a gesture of goodwill, India should honour Bangladesh’s request to investigate all border killings, identify those responsible, and hold them accountable.”
Labour unrest
With the fall of the Awami League government, apart from the socio-political ramifications, there has been unrest in the industrial sector as well. Several factory owners supported by the Sheikh Hasina government have had to go into hiding for fear of violence and labour protests broke out early this month across major industrial areas. The Daily Star (September 2) reported that workers in Savar, Ashulia, Dhamrai and Gazipur demonstrated “with demands ranging from job regularisation, pay raise, and lunch allowance to two-day weekly holiday and attendance bonus.”
Prothom Alo (September 14) emphasises the importance of the garment sector in Bangladesh and favours labour rights saying, “Government policy makers need to understand that labour discontent cannot be resolved through promises alone. They should be guaranteed a fair minimum wage as well as a nice and safe working environment.”
The Daily Star editor Mahfuz Anam writes of the governance issues in the private sector. Recognising that some were “recipient[s] of the former regime’s largesse” and others “suffered because they refused to toe the line”, Anam says that the former’s “production facilities cannot be treated as ‘enemy properties’ and burnt down… The direct impact of such action is the threat to the jobs of workers.”
adya.goyal@expressindia.com
