Hundreds of protesting govt employees lock main entrance of Bangladesh Secretariat

Dhaka: Hundreds of government employees on Monday briefly locked the main gate of Bangladesh Secretariat, the heart of the administration, in the capital Dhaka, intensifying their protests against a new service law which allows easier dismissal of officials for misconduct.

According to eyewitnesses and media reports, officials and employees of the Secretariat, which houses ministries and important government offices, locked the main gate on the third day of their protest against the Public Service Act amendment.

The agitating employees gathered near the main entrance around 12:30 pm. During that time, the gate was closed. It was reopened about half an hour later, around 1:00 pm. The protesting employees moved from the gate and gathered in a scattered way across the secretariat premises.

“The gate was reopened after half an hour,” a private TV channel reported.

According to the reports, official activities inside the complex were largely stalled as the employees continued the work stoppage.

The protests started after Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus-led interim government published the revised version of the law, allowing easier dismissal of officials for misconduct.

The government employees threatened to continue the protests until the ordinance was scrapped. The authorities deployed extra police to enforce a vigil against any possible violence at the complex.

Meanwhile, the protest by employees of the Dhaka South City Corporation, demanding the installation of BNP leader Ishraque Hossain as its mayor in line with a court order, has brought administrative services to a halt, bdnews24.com reported.

The election commission preferred not to oppose the verdict, but the interim government on Monday challenged the ruling in the High Court to debar Hossain’s swearing-in and allow an administrator it appointed to discharge the mayor’s role.

A sense of unease intensified in Bangladesh for the past few days amid protests in the civil administration and business sector over the policies of the Yunus-led interim government.

The apex Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries and other business chambers Sunday convened a press conference to review the worrisome situation in the business arena.

A prominent business community leader Showkat Aziz Russell told the presser that businessmen were being killed just like the intellectuals in the 1971 Liberation War. He warned of famine-like situation as more people become jobless.

“We don’t know how we will pay bonuses and salaries to workers ahead of Eid-ul-Adha,” said Russell, the president of Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association (BTMA).

"You are inviting foreigners to invest in the country...(but) foreigners know that investment in Bangladesh is not viable. They know Vietnam is more profitable than Bangladesh," Russell said.

There have been reports of discord between the military and the interim government over the possible timeline for holding the parliamentary elections and other policy issues related to Bangladesh’s security affairs, particularly involving a proposed humanitarian corridor of aid channel to Myanmar’s rebel-held Rakhine state.

Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman along with the Navy and Air Force chiefs met Yunus last week and reportedly reiterated their call for election by December this year to allow an elected government to take charge. They also conveyed their reservation about the corridor issue.

The next day, Gen Zaman held a senior officers meeting at Dhaka Cantonment and said he was unaware of the government's several strategic decisions despite the military’s active role.

The military also decided to be tough against rampant incidents of “mob justice”.

“Bangladesh needs political stability. This is only possible through an elected government, not by unelected decision-makers,” the Daily Star newspaper quoted Zaman as saying during an “officers' address” in which he delivered a 30-minute speech, followed by more than an hour of questions and answers.

Officers from across the country and at Bangladeshi UN missions reportedly joined the event, both physically and virtually, in full combat uniform – a show of unity and resolve.

According to reports, the army chief also voiced concern about making other decisions without an electoral mandate – including the potential foreign management of Chattogram Port, Bangladesh’s main seaport, and the launch of Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service – which he said could compromise national security.