At least five people have been killed and dozens injured in Bangladesh on Saturday after police opened fire on a crowd of workers protesting unpaid wages and rising wages at a China-backed power plant, officials and police said. .
Police opened fire after about 2,000 protesters began throwing bricks and stones at officers at the coal factory site in the southeastern city of Chittagong, local police official Azizul Islam told Reuters.
Four protesters died on the spot and another died at the hospital, he said.
“We are trying to control the situation,” Islam said, adding that at least six police officers were among those injured.
Workers attacked and set fire to several structures at the 1,320-megawatt power plant, located 265 km (165 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, he added.
Local government official Saiduzzaman Chowdhury said workers were protesting for unpaid wages and demanding higher wages and reduced hours in the holy month of Ramadan, which began this week as Muslims fast from east to west.
Several of the injured workers were wounded with a gun and taken to a hospital in Chittagong, he said, adding that the five people who were killed were all shot.
The $ 2.4 billion power plant is a major source of foreign investment in Bangladesh and one of a number of projects that Beijing is pushing to cultivate closer ties with Dhaka.
In 2016, Chinese company SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction signed an agreement with S Alam Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate responsible for on-site construction work.
That year, four protesters who opposed its construction were killed when police opened fire during clashes between villagers who were protesting both for and against the project.
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