At least 10 people were injured in clashes between ready-made garment workers and police in Ashulia and Gazipur on Saturday as most factories resumed production amid demonstrations for a wage hike.

Police and witnesses said that agitated workers in Ashulia and Gazipur blocked highways in the morning to press their demand for a wage hike.

Police charged workers with batons, fired teargas shells, and used sound grenades to disperse them, leaving 10 people injured in the resulting clashes, mostly workers.

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Faruque Hassan said that most of the 300 factories that kept their production suspended reopened on Saturday.

However, 42 garment factories are still closed, with some of them suspending their operations on Saturday, he said.

On October 22, factory owners proposed Tk 10,400 as the minimum monthly wage for workers to the Minimum Wage Board, up from Tk 8,000 set in 2018.

Immediately, workers in different industrial belts took to the streets demanding a minimum wage—between 18,000 and 25,000, as proposed by different trade unions and workers’ platforms—to cope with the runaway prices of essentials and spiralling living expenses, trade union leaders said.

At least two workers were killed and scores others were injured in clashes with the police amid the baton charge and the firing of teargas shells and sound grenades during the recent protests, leading to the suspension of production in many factories.

In Gazipur, workers of SM Knit Garment blocked the busy Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway on Saturday, suspending traffic movement, reported a New Age correspondent in Gazipur.

As the police baton charged workers, fired teargas shells, and sounded grenades to disperse them from the road, they also pelted stones    at the police, leaving five, including two policemen, injured.

The injured policemen are Gazipur Industrial Police ASP Md. Asad and inspector Abdur Nur, said Asad.Other injured were given first aid, while a critically injured woman was referred to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for better treatment, said workers.

In Ashulia, workers blocked Abdullahpur-Baipail road in the Jamgora area in the morning, demanding a wage hike, said SM Kamruzzaman, officer-in-charge of Ashulia police station.Clashes erupted between the police and workers, prompting the police to charge batons, fire teargas shells, and sound grenades to disperse workers from the road.

At least five people, including a rickshaw puller, were injured in the incident, according to the local hospital and workers.Visiting the industrial belt on Saturday, a huge number of law enforcement agencies were seen deployed at different points.Police said that several thousand ready-made garment workers were named and accused in at least 11 cases filed with different police stations in connection with labour unrest that began in late October.At least 20 people have been arrested in these cases, according to several police sources