Several hundred project employees under the banner of Bangladesh Government Development Project Employees Welfare Council started marching towards the PMO as part of their scheduled programme, but the police intercepted them at Paltan intersection in the city. At one stage, police charged baton on them when they tried to break the barbwire fence.

The injured are Lovely Akhter, Mohammad Iliyas, Mokterul Haq, Sujan Das, Idris Ali and Ibrahim Khalil.

The project employees, who have been agitating for eight days at Muktangan to press their five-point demand, also held a brief rally at Paltan intersection where the leaders demanded issuing a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) to transfer the work force of all the development projects, which started after July 1, 1997, to revenue sector.

Condemning the police attack, they also said they are the driving forces of the development occurred during the last five years but after losing their jobs, their existences are at stake.

The leaders alleged that the issue of transferring the work force of development projects is not implemented due to bureaucratic complexity even after the direction of the prime minister.

Sirajul Islam, general secretary of the council, said the government issued different SROs, which are creating discriminations among the employees of the development projects.

According to the SRO issued on June 20, 2005, the employees who worked in different development projects since July 1, 1997, will have to appear at competitive examinations once again to retain the jobs, he added.

"We had several talks with the government and also observed many agitating programmes including hunger strike, but the government is indifferent to our demand", he said.

"We will not return home until the government meets our demand", he vowed.

The leaders demanded cancellation of the 'discriminatory' SROs and issuing a SRO that would be acceptable for all.

The other demands include scale-based salary and reinstatement of 6,500 employees of various projects who were sacked.