Rally on Jan 5: DMP examining BNP plea

Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) today said it is examining security aspects over BNP’s expression of interest to hold a public rally in Dhaka on Tuesday to protest the January 5 general election, according to the party.

“DMP will inform us in black and white about the progress of our application after getting security clearance from the traffic department and deputy commissioner of Ramna,” BNP’s Religious Affair Secretary Masud Ahmed Talukdar told The Daily Star after meeting DMP officials today.

Earlier, a BNP delegation went to the DMP office seeking permission to stage the rally on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told a press conference that a letter was issued to the Dhaka police authority in this regard.

Last year, BNP’s attempt on a similar demonstration titled “black day for democracy” ended in three months of agitation that left over a 100 people dead in violence.

This year too, according to what Mirza Fakhrul said, BNP wants to host a major rally in Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan to mark the day as “democracy killing day” and observe related programmes across the country on the same note.

“We hope the government will allow us to hold a peaceful rally paving way for proper democracy in the country,” Fakhrul told reporters at the press briefing in the party’s Nayapaltan headquarters.

After boycotting 2014 general elections, BNP waged a 99-day blockade on rail, water and roadways when they were denied to host a gathering in Dhaka’s Paltan area, near their office, on the first anniversary of the polls.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia ended up never leaving her Gulshan office for three months, what she complained was confinement by the government.

The months-long large scale violence that followed was widely condemned at home and abroad. Foreign diplomats have since advised all parties in Bangladesh to “shun the path of violence”.

The violence ended ahead of the mayor elections of the two Dhaka City Corporations in April where BNP fared poorly. The year ended with municipality polls where BNP secured only 22 mayor posts out of 233 in the local government.