'People will respond as they did in 2024': PM warns industrial saboteurs

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday warned that those conspiring from across the border to destroy the country’s mills and factories would face a fitting response from the people, as they did in 2024.

“Just as the people of Bangladesh gave them a fitting response in 2024, we will give them the same in the days ahead,” he said while addressing a roadside rally at Katakhali intersection in Bagerhat.

The Prime Minister urged people, particularly workers, to stand against what he described as conspiracies to disrupt the country’s industries and development plans.

“I firmly believe that no working person or worker would ever want to harm an industry. These mills and factories are national assets. They belong to the people of this country and to its workers,” he said.

Tarique alleged that those who had failed to improve people's lives over the past 15 to 16 years, deprived them of their voting rights and siphoned off wealth abroad were now attempting to create instability in the country from across the border.

He said the government had taken various initiatives and drawn up plans to improve living standards, but conspirators were trying to derail those efforts.

“Now is the time to build our country and change the fortunes of our people. Let us unite with all our strength, alongside the working people and workers, to give these conspirators a fitting response,” he said.

Warning of the consequences of damaging industrial establishments, Tarique said workers and their families would suffer the most, as their livelihoods and children's futures depended on the factories.

Addressing workers' wage demands, he said the elected government was working round the clock to address the country's problems and expand industrial and commercial activities.

He said a wage board had already been formed to consider workers' demands and had begun its work. The board would set a new minimum wage within the next one to two months, he added, expressing hope that the decision would improve workers' livelihoods.

Highlighting the garment industry's growth over the past five decades, Tarique said the sector had become a major source of foreign earnings and employment for millions of men and women.

He called on everyone to work together towards a common goal, saying, “Our goal and objective should be one — work first, Bangladesh first.”

The Prime Minister also pledged to reopen closed mills and factories and attract fresh domestic and foreign investment to create employment opportunities. He said the government planned to establish thousands of industries stretching from the southwestern region to Panchagarh in the north.