DHAKA, Oct 10: Thousands of textile workers torched a factory in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka on Tuesday amid widespread protests at a new 25 dollar minimum wage, police said.

The government’s minimum wage board commission last week fixed the monthly wage at 1662.50 taka ($25) after four months of negotiations between unions and factory owners.

The figure was agreed by employers and one leading textile workers’ union. Other unions, however, called for earnings to be set at at least 3,000 taka ($44).

Several thousand workers set fire to a factory and attacked several others with stones at Pallabi, 20 kilometres west of central Dhaka, said Major Ehtashamus Samad of the Rapid Action Battalion security force. “They held protest marches, set fire to one factory, smashed the windows of cars and also tried to set fire to another factory,” he added.—AFP