The year 2018 will be the year of people getting their rights back under the leadership of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, the party’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said today. 

"The countdown to the end of the vote-less government has started," the BNP leader made the remarks at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan central office in the morning.

Rizvi said Awami League will no more be able to show the power of force to deter the forward march of the people.  

He also alleged that the law enforcers yesterday arrested more than 50 leaders and activists of the party to deter the party's observance of "democracy killing day", as they call it.

On Thursday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police denied the BNP permission to hold the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on January 5, the fourth anniversary of the 2014 parliamentary elections.

The AL marked the day as “victory day for democracy” holding two rallies in Banani and on the Bangabandhu Avenue in addition to “gala” celebrations across the country.

The last parliamentary elections were held on January 5, 2014 amid controversy as the BNP and most other political parties boycotted the polls terming it “farcical and one-sided”. At least 153 lawmakers were elected uncontested in that election.

In 2015, on the first anniversary of the polls, violence erupted across the country centring rallies and counter rallies of the parties. The situation remained turbulent for weeks.

The BNP was also not granted permission to hold a rally then. Police kept BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia confined to her Gulshan office by blocking the streets with sand-laden trucks.

An angry Khaleda called for a countrywide nonstop blockade from January 6 in an attempt to topple the government. The blockade went on until the last week of March.

At least 95 people were killed and around 1,500 injured in arson attacks on public vehicles during the blockade.