Unabated extortions in the garment sector, the source of the country’s main foreign exchange earning, have made it difficult for entrepreneurs to operate their factories smoothly and peacefully, the industry sources alleged.

Local goons and musclemen, backed by influential political quarters, held owners of many of the RMG factories as hostages, forcibly realising tolls in hundreds of thousands of Takas every month.

‘They operate in broad daylight, approaching us to demand hefty sums of tolls… They threaten us of dire consequences if we fail to meet their demand,’ said one of the owners of a garment factory in the outskirts of the city. ‘If we don’t pay them at least a part of what they demand, they create anarchy in our factories and sometimes attack the factory,’ he added.

Many RMG entrepreneurs complained that these unruly goons have a nexus with police and law enforcing agencies who give a blind eye as they perpetrate their wanton plunder and robbing. On May 12, the extortionists shot dead Mobarak Ali, 65, and terrorised his three minor school-going grandchildren, at Merul Badda after being failed to realise their demanded money of Tk 20 lakh from his son-in-law, Delwar Hossain, managing director Toba Group. This is just one example of how brute these extortionists can be.

Leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association are dismayed with the runaway law and order that made the factory owners hostage in the hands of the extortionists. ‘It is an open secret that the garment owners are paying huge amount in toll to the miscreants to ensure their safety to run their factories,’ said a BGMEA leader.

He also informed that a number of garment owners had received threats from the goons demanding toll or their factories would be vandalised. Some of the troublemakers in the industry are linked with the trading of ‘Jhut’—a by-product of the garment factories—and ‘stock lot’, the garments rejected by the foreign buyers, it was learnt.

BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy told New Age on Saturday that they informed the government of the situation and demanded effective measures to save the country’s top export earning sector. ‘Garment owners are in constant fear of the goons and even dare not notify the law enforcers,’ he said.

Salam demanded exemplary punishment for the goons and urged the government to ensure security of their factories and transportation of goods. He demanded immediate formation of industrial police force as promised by the government. The owners fear that if the situation continues for long, the garment industry will be in a deep trouble, scaring away the foreign buyers.

-New Age