In 2010, Akter was charged with inciting a riot and conspiring to set off an explosive device after garment workers had vandalised several factories, even though she had been thirty-five kilometres away from the events. She temporarily went into hiding, but was eventually found and arrested by police. Other trade union leaders including Montu Ghosh of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Trade Union Centre and Babul Akhter were also arrested around that time, provoking international condemnation. Akter and Akhter were released on bail after thirty days in jail. The charges were dismissed after the US government had suspended its trade privileges with Bangladesh following the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013.