Govt, ruling party plan resistance
The BNP-led alliance has vowed to hold its ‘march or democracy’ in the capital today defying a police ban and with the government and the ruling party planning to resist the programme. Senior BNP and Jamaat leaders said that a number of activists of the BNP’s front organisations had already reached Dhaka from outlying districts. They have been instructed to take up positions wherever they face resistance on their way to Naya Paltan today, the leaders said.
The acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, meanwhile on Saturday evening, made put out a call for all to join the march.
‘We will make our march for democracy a success at any cost. The party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia will attend the programme in front of the central BNP office at Naya Paltan,’ the party’s vice-chairman M Hafiz Uddin Ahmed said at a press conference at the National Press Club on Saturday evening.
The Dhaka city Awami League’s acting general secretary Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya on Saturday instructed activists to take up positions with sticks and flags at seven entry points of the capital from Saturday afternoon till Sunday.
‘No BNP and Jamaat activists will be let in the capital on Sunday,’ Maya said at an emergency meeting of its extended committee at the central AL office on Bangabandhu Avenue.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Friday denied the BNP permission to hold the rally it planned at Naya Paltan after the march.
Road and river transports have thinned on long-distance routes to Dhaka since Friday, leaving the capital almost shut off. Public buses came to a halt even inside the capital city on Saturday.
New Age correspondents in the outlying districts reported incidents of buses headed for Dhaka being sent back. Law enforcers stopped also trains headed for Dhaka from Rajshahi and Nilphamari were stopped in Tangail and arrested 125 passengers and sent back both the trains.
The joint forces composed of the police, the Rapid Action Battalion and the Border Guard Bangladesh have been carrying out drives across the country for the past few days, arresting people, including many local BNP and Jamaat leaders, raiding houses, messes and public transports. At least a 1,000 people have so far been arrested since Khaleda on Tuesday announced the march.
The police on Saturday said they had information that people ‘creating anarchy and carrying out subversion across the country’ were planning to come to Dhaka for the march and they stopped such people entering the capital.
‘It will unlawful to come to Dhaka for an illegal programme,’ said additional inspector general of police Shahidul Hoque.
Ruling party activists have, meanwhile, become active along with law enforcers to stop the opposition’s march.
Khaleda in a recorded video message on Friday called on party activists to join the march even if she ‘cannot be beside’ them. Party leaders said that Khaleda would try her best to reach Naya Paltan defying the ‘virtual house arrest’ she had been under and possible restrictions on her movement.
BNP-led alliance leaders also said that they had made all preparations to reach Naya Paltan amid the ban and the virtual ‘blockade’ in the capital by the government.
Ahmed Abdul Quader, secretary general of Khelafat Majlis, a partner in the BNP-led alliance, told New Age that they would try to reach Naya Paltan amid obstruction in as large a number as possible.
The acting Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Shafiqur Rahman and its Dhaka city unit president Rafiqul Islam Khan in separate statements urged party leaders and activists to take up positions at Paltan at 10:00am defying the government ban and obstructions.
The Dhaka district BNP president, Abdul Mannan, told New Age on Saturday that a large number of people would join the march. He said that despite various preventive measures by the government, people would gather in the capital to make the programme a success.
The BNP and its front organisations on Saturday also brought out rallies in different parts of the country to drum up support for the march.
New Age correspondents in Narayanganj, Tangail, Barisal, Pabna, Bagerhat, Lakshmipur and Sylhet said that no buses and trains had left for Dhaka since Friday.
The correspondent in Bogra said that no transport had left for Dhaka although local BNP leaders claimed that thousands of people had managed to reach Dhaka already.
More than 203 people were arrested at places in Dhaka, 80 in Chittagong, more than 125 in Tangail, 62 in Jessore, 40 in Bogra, 7 in Natore, 14 in Jaipurhat, 27 in Savar, 16 in Brahmanbaria, 13 in Chandpur, 7 in Lakshmipur, 6 in Munshiganj, 10 in Jhenaidah, 3 in Narayanganj, 2 in Comilla, 2 in Magura, 22 in Feni and 13 in Noakhali, on Saturday.
Dhaka city Awami League leaders and activists will take up positions at Gabtali, Aminbazar, Uttara, Azampur, Airport, Sadarghat, Kamalapur, railway stations, Demra, Shyampur, Jatrabari, Farmgate, Mohakhali and Turag early today to stop people joining the opposition the BNP’s march.
AL men will also take up positions at Tongi Bridge, Board Bazar, Gazipur Chowrasta, Chandra, Bianibazar and Kaliganj in Gazipur and Kanchpur, Pagla and Bhulta in Narayanganj to stop BNP and Jamaat men coming from the south-east.
Maya at a meeting at the party’s central office on Bangabandhu Avenue on Saturday instructed party men to stop BNP men from coming to the capital.
He said asked leaders and activists to sand guard in their locality so that BNP and Jamaat men could not to commit subversion.
-With New Age input
