BNP Leaders, Activists Gathering at Nayapaltan for Today’s Rally

Thousands of BNP leaders and activists began to gather before the party’s Nayapaltan central office with processions from different parts of Dhaka since Wednesday morning to hold their much-hyped rally.

The leaders and activists carried banners, festoons, placards and portraits of party’s top leaders and shouted anti-government slogans as they converged at Nayapaltan venue before the scheduled start of the rally at 2 pm, reports UNB.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir will address the programme as the chief guest and announce a ‘one-point' simultaneous movement to press for the resignation of the Awami League government paving the way for holding the next national election under a neutral government.

BNP’s Dhaka south and north city units have already set up a temporary stage in front of the BNP office for the rally.

A large number of members of law enforcement agencies have been deployed in the Nayapaltan area to maintain law and order.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) issued separate notices not only allowing the BNP to hold the rally at Nayapaltan but also the the ruling Awami League to hold a 'peace rally' not very far away at the Baitul Mokarram South Gate. Both parties were given permission to hold the rallies on 23 conditions, including ending the programmes by 5 pm.

Alongside the BNP, its like-minded political parties are all going to announce the one-point demand through separate rallies in the capital today.

Ganatantra Mancha, a platform of six parties that shares the BNP's view that the government must resign ahead of elections, or otherwise be toppled through a movement, will announce their participation in the one-point movement at 4 pm by holding a meeting outside the Jatiya Press Club.

A separate 12-party alliance that similarly believes no fair election can be held under the Awami League-led government will come up with a similar announcement from a rally in front of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU). The same is expected of the Jatiyatabadi Samomona Jote at Bijoynagar, the Liberal Democratic Party at Tejgaon and Gonoforum and People’s Party at Motijheel and Labour Party at Nayapaltan at different times of the day.

Besides, two splinter groups of the Gono Odhikar Parishad (one led by Reza Kibria and the other by Nurul Haque Nur), Gonotantrik Bam Oikya, Samomona Gonotantrik Peshajibi Jote and Sadaran Chhatra Odhikar Sanrakshan Parishad will also hold rallies in front of the Jatiya Press Club around 3 pm and announce their participation in the one-point movement.

From conversations with the leaders of the BNP and many of the smaller parties, it is expected that the joint declaration of the one-point movement will contain the demand for the resignation of the Awami League government, dissolution of parliament, formation of the polls-time impartial government and reconstitution of the Election Commission for arranging a free, fair and inclusive election.

The unconditional release of all political prisoners, including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, withdrawal of all ghost cases, and annulment of all false convictions towards building a democratic state and restoring the voting rights of the people through amendments to the constitution and reforming the state system will also find a place in the rhetoric, but the realisation of these will all boil down to a single overriding objective: that the next parliamentary elections be held under a neutral and non-party government.

Earlier at a public rally on December 10 last in the capital's Golapbagh field, the BNP had announced a 10-point charter of demands including the resignation of the government, the dissolution of parliament, and the transfer of power to a non-partisan government.

BNP and its like-minded parties observed various programmes, including human chains, sits-in, road marches and rallies across the country, over the last seven months since the announcement of the 10-point movement, which itself came at the end of a programme of divisional rallies that started in August.