FOUR YEARS OF RANA PLAZA COLLAPSE Victims remembered amid restrictions

Survivors and families of victims of Rana Plaza collapse remembered the victims with flowers and tears amid restriction from the police on Monday marking the fourth anniversary of the world’s biggest factory building collapse that killed at least 1,136 and injured 2,000 on April 24, 2013.
Braving intense rain, they gathered in front of the site of collapsed eight-storied Rana Plaza, which housed five garment factories, and demanded punishment of the people responsible for the collapse and proper compensation and rehabilitation of the victims.
They also urged the government to enhance workplace safety, stop recurrence of such incidents and demanded a standard wage for the livelihood of the workers.
Victims and different labour organisations took different programmes in front of the Rana Plaza for Monday but the police foiled all, alleged the organisers.
They alleged that cops did not allow them to hold any programme excepting placing wreaths at the monument erected in front of the site of the collapsed building at Savar.
They also alleged that
police imposed some illegal and illogical bans to create a panic there.
Labour leaders said for panic, misbehave and scolding by cops, the victims even could not stand before the Rana Plaza where hundreds of the cops were deployed with water cannon.
They alleged that after and before placing wreaths the labour leaders tried to hold rally and demonstration, but the cops foiled all the programmes including recitation of the Quran. 
Gana Sanghati Andolan chief coordinator Zonayed Saki criticised the deployment of police and restrictions on the programmes.
Senior assistant superintendent of police at Savar Mahabubur Rahman said that to ensure security of all people they allowed no programme but the placing of the wreath.
Denying the allegation of restriction, he said that huge cops with water canon were deployed there to avoid any untoward incident.
The labour leaders demanded expeditious trial of building owner Sohel Rana and other perpetrators.
‘I want their capital punishment,’ said Saddam Hossain an amputated survivor of the Rana Plaza collapse.
The victims expressed fear whether they would get justice for the death of dear ones as there was hardly any progress in the trial.
The injured victims demanded rehabilitation and proper compensation. 
Non-governmental organisation ActionAid Bangladesh on Sunday published a survey on 1,403 survivors which found that about 30.8 per cent of those victims were still in trauma and 42.2 per cent were unemployed.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, however, denied the findings and said that all survivors were employed.
On July 18, 2016, a Dhaka district court indicted 41 people, including owner of the compound Rana for several offenses including homicide.
The trial of the case is, however, yet to begin.
Of the 41 accused, 4 are in prisons, 29 are on bail, 7 are still in hiding and the rest 1 died recently while on parole.
The victims were aggrieved as the local administration and government officials placed their wreath only five feet away from the monument where they placed the wreaths.
Different organisations hold mourning and protests at Jurain graveyard where many deceased were buried. 

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