Tomorrow is the holy Eid-ul-Adha — a day symbolizing sacrifice, compassion, and humanity. Yet this year, for millions of garment workers in Bangladesh, Eid means destitution, deprivation, and heart-wrenching tears. Instead of new clothes, they’ve received baton blows. Instead of bonuses, only tears.
In Gazipur, Narayanganj, Savar, and Ashulia, workers who toiled day after day didn’t even receive their rightful wages. When they peacefully stood on the streets demanding their Eid bonuses, what they got in return was state-sponsored repression. Police batons, water cannons, and attacks from regime-backed NCP-Jamaat goons turned Eid preparations into a bloodstained ordeal.
The very workers whose sweat fuels the luxury of foreign markets and builds up Bangladesh’s export reserves — today, their homes have no Eid halwa, no panjabi for their sons, no new dress for their daughters. They are left standing, backs against the wall of injustice.
And the national media? Silent. TV screens flash Eid sales, glamour shows, and propaganda of so-called development. Online portals are under censorship. Journalists know — if they dare cover workers’ suffering, they might be the next ones to disappear.
Such a situation is impossible in a legitimate, democratic state. This is only possible under an occupying
