BNP on Wednesday decided to defer its planned Thursday's grand rally to Friday in the city as the party is unwilling to hold the programme at Golapbagh ground.
After a marathon meeting of the BNP Standing Committee members, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir came up with the announcement at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office.
He said the rally will be held in front of their party’s Naya Paltan central office at 2pm on Friday as it is a weekly holiday.
“BNP, which strongly believes in democratic values, is announcing to hold the pre-announced grand rally at Naya Paltan at 2pm on weekly holiday Friday (28 July) instead of Thursday in order to take the ongoing movement for the restoration of democracy forward in a peaceful manner,” Fakhrul said.
He hoped that the government or any of its institutions will not create any barrier to holding the grand rally which is a part of their ongoing peaceful democratic movement.
Earlier in the day, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq said the police did not allow BNP to hold the rally at Naya Paltan or Suhrawardy Udyan. “We have suggested they go to Golapbagh ground or any other field as Thursday is a working day.”
The DMP also suggested three wings of the ruling Awami League – Jubo League, Swechchhasebak League and Chhatra League – hold their scheduled rally whether at Dhaka University or at Mohanagar Natya Mancha instead of at the south gate of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque.
Following the DMP’s decision, BNP Standing Committee members sat in a meeting at 4pm at their Naya Paltan central office to discuss evolving situation over the rally venue.
Fakhrul was supposed to inform the media about their party decision on the rally venue after the meeting. But Fakhrul together with other Standing Committee members left Naya Paltan for Gulshan around 5:30pm without talking to the media. They again sat in a meeting there.
After that meeting, Fakhrul talked to reporters around 9:50pm.
A large number of law enforcers have been deployed with riot car and water cannons in the Naya Paltan area.
Several hundred BNP leaders and activists also gathered in front of their party office around 5pm but they later left the area following the instruction by the party senior leaders.
On Monday, BNP sent a letter to the DMP expressing its interest to hold a rally at Naya Paltan or Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka.
Earlier, the DMP chief urged the political parties to hold their programmes without causing public suffering as they may be forced to ban political rallies in future if those become reasons for people’s woes.
A total of nine political parties, including Awami League and BNP, have sent letters to the DMP seeking permission to hold rallies in the capital on July 27, but few parties will be allowed, he said.
“To hold political rallies is a democratic right of the political parties but it is the responsibility of the DMP to ensure the security of the people,” he said while talking to reporters after inspecting the overall security measures on the occasion of Holy Ashura over the Tajia procession.
On Saturday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the programme to press home their one-point demand for the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to pave the way for holding the next national election under a neutral government.
He said the rally will be held in the capital at 2pm as part of their simultaneous movement.
On July 12, Mirza Fakhrul formally announced their “one-point” movement. As part of the first programme to realise the one-point demand, BNP and the other opposition parties and alliances observed a countrywide two-day march programme on July 18 and 19.
The opposition’s one-point demand includes the resignation of the current “fascist, authoritarian, people’s vote looter and illegal” Awami League government, dissolution of the existing parliament, formation of the polls-time impartial government and reconstitution of the Election Commission for arranging a free, fair and inclusive election, the release of all political prisoners, including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, withdrawal of all false and ghost cases, including those against Tarique Rahman, and annulment of all false convictions.
