Tension mounts after arrests of 5 miners’ leaders

Tension still prevails among the miners of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur after five miners' leaders have been arrested on Saturday.

Syed Imam Hasan, manager (security and safety) of BCMCL, on Saturday night filed a case against 141 miners for halting the coalmine's production works.

There are 1,147 local miners in the BCMCL, said Imam Hasan.

The case was filed with Parbatipur Police Station around 10:00pm, said Mokhlesur Rahman, officer-in-charge (OC) of the police station.

Police picked up five leaders of miners on Saturday noon when they were demonstrating in front of BCMCL's entrance.

The five were later shown arrested in the case, said the OC.

The arrestees are Rabiul Islam Robi and Abu Sufian, president and general secretary of BCMCL miners and workers' union, and office secretary Ershad Ali and Mahbubur Rahman, vice president of BCMCL unit of Jatiya Sramik League and Belal Hossain.

Police produced the arrestees before the court the following day.

A large number of police personnel have been deployed in and around the BCMCL to prevent any untoward incident.

Protesting the action of BCMCL, the miners were gathering in front of the entrance since Sunday morning to stage a demonstration, but, could not as the members of the law enforcement agency were in a hard line.

The BCMCL manager said the local miners have been jobless since the shutdown began on March 24 amid the pandemic. They remained unpaid as they have been employed under no-work-no-pay condition.

The Chinese mining consortium CMC- XMC is the employing company of local miners.

However, around 300 Chinese miners continued the coal production during the shutdown as coal is needed to operate the 525MW power plant.

On the other hand, the local miners have been staging demonstrations for the last several days, demanding the authority to allow them to join their work. Nevertheless, fearing the spread of Coronavirus infection in the highly protected area, the state's own company went through a procedure to employ the local miners.

The company agreed to employ 410 out of the 1,147 miners, after getting their Covid-19 testing reports. However, the miners' leaders started agitations demanding their preferred miners, which virtually halted the entire process.

Police picked up the five leaders when they blocked Phulbari-Parbatipur road on Saturday noon, disrupting the traffic movements.

Imam Hasan said the case was filed against the miners as they obstructed mine's work. The miners' leaders were forcing the authority to include their selective miners, but the employment organisation refused their request, and the miners obstructed BCMCL's official works.

The OC further added that there are many unnamed accused in the case.

Police picked up the five leaders when they were staging a peaceful agitation, said the miners.