Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has warned that the people will unitedly give a fitting response to those conspiring to create chaos, vandalize and attack industrial establishments, just as they did in 2024.

He made the remarks on Thursday while addressing a roadside rally at Katakhali intersection on the Khulna-Mongla highway in Bagerhat, en route to visit the shrine of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (RA).

The Prime Minister said a group was attempting to destabilize the country by attacking and vandalizing industrial establishments. He alleged that the conspirators wanted to undermine the government’s plans to improve people’s living standards.

He called on people and workers to stand united against such conspiracies, recalling the mass uprising of August 5, 2024.

Tarique Rahman alleged that those who had deprived people of their voting rights and siphoned off the country’s wealth abroad during the previous 15–16 years were forced to flee following the people’s uprising. He claimed that they were now orchestrating unrest from across the border and attempting to destroy the country’s mills and factories.

The Prime Minister said industrial establishments were assets of both the country and its workers. Their destruction would primarily harm working-class people, workers and their children. He urged everyone to play a responsible role in protecting the country’s industries.

Regarding workers’ wage demands, he said the government had already formed a wage board to review their demands. The board had begun its work and was expected to determine a new minimum wage within the next one to two months.

He said the elected government was working around the clock to address national challenges, expand industries and strengthen trade and business. The BNP had pledged to reopen closed public and private industrial establishments and encourage domestic and foreign investment, he added.

The Prime Minister said Khulna was once one of the country’s major industrial hubs, but many factories in the region had shut down over the years. The government aims to establish thousands of new industrial establishments across the country, from the southwestern districts of Khulna, Bagerhat, Kushtia and Chuadanga to Panchagarh in the north.

He said the initiative would create extensive employment opportunities for the country’s young people.

Earlier in the morning, the Prime Minister attended the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on economic and infrastructure cooperation between the Invest Bangladesh Authority and China’s state-owned China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) in Mongla.

He later laid the foundation stone for the Mongla Port Expansion and Modernization Project.

After addressing the roadside rally at Katakhali, he visited the shrine of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali (RA) and subsequently attended the inauguration ceremony of the New Kuri Sports (Season 2) programme in Khulna.