Banshkhali power plant clash: Court hearing set for Monday

The writ petition over a clash between police and workers at a power plant in Chattogram’s Banshkhali is slated to be heard on Monday.

The petitioners have appealed for Tk 2 million in compensation for the families of each worker killed in the clash.

A virtual High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Sardar Md Rashed Jahangir will hear the case.

Supreme Court lawyer Syeda Nasrin filed the writ petition on behalf of human rights organisation Ain O Salis Kendra on Thursday.

“We mentioned the petition to the court today, and the court scheduled the hearing for Monday,” she said.

Earlier, on Apr 18, ASK sent a legal notice to the Ministry of Home Affairs, and 16 police higher-ups, including the inspector general, to pay Tk 30 million to each of the dead workers’ families and Tk 20 million to each injured worker in compensation.

As they received no response from the ministry or the police, ASK took the appeal to the court on Thursday.

“We issued a legal notice with a deadline of seven days, which ended on Sunday,” lawyer Syeda Nasrin said.

The High Court accepted the writ petition for hearing when presented on Sunday.

Six people were killed in the clash between police and workers at the SS Power Plant under construction by S Alam Group in Banshkhali on Apr 17. At least 20 others were injured in the clash.

According to local residents, there were growing tensions between the power plant administration and the workers at the power plant over various issues, including arears and work hours during Ramadan, which led to the clash.

The defendants failed to perform their duties as the law enforcement authority and to ensure the rights and interest of the poor workers, the petitioners said. The court may order the defendants to take necessary steps against those involved.

The authorities, especially the local administration, are legally bound to protect the lives of disadvantaged groups of people and provide them with social protection from influential quarters, according to the petition.

“But in this case, the local administration assisted the owners, going against the poor workers, while the top authorities remained silent. This is totally against the constitution of Bangladesh. This is a violation of basic rights.”

The petitioners sought a rule from the court on why the inactivity of the defendants would not be declared illegal and why they would not be ordered to provide compensation to the dead workers’ families and the injured workers.

They also sought an order from the court to prepare a list of injured and dead workers for submission

At least 19 individuals and organisations, including the home secretary, the law secretary, the labour and employment secretary, the commerce secretary, the power, energy and mineral resources secretary, the environment secretary, IGP, the Chattogram DC, and SS Power Limited were named in the petition.