Joynal Abedin Khan :
The ruling Awami League and BNP have got conditional permission from Dhaka Metropolitan Police to hold rallies inside and in front of their respective central offices today (January 5), the second anniversary of the 10th general elections.
DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah said that the Awami League will have to hold rally in front of their offices in Bangabandhu Avenue, while the BNP will have to arrange the rally in front of their party office in Nayapaltan.
DMP came up with decision hours after Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) authorities allowed the parties to hold the rallies in front of their central offices.
DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Miah made this announcement while talking to journalists at his office in city on Monday afternoon.
He said that the parties have been directed not to cause public suffering by creating congestions on the streets.
Earlier, the DSCC Mayor Sayeed Khokon announced the permission at a press conference in the city corporation’s conference room on Monday.
According to the DMP’s conditions, both the ruling and the opposition parties will have to arrange their programmes between 2:00pm and 5:00pm.
The DMP instructed conditions are-programme must start in the afternoon and it will end before the Azan of Magrib prayer, police will control the use of mike or loud speaker in the permitted area, program to be held on the party office premises, creating traffic jam bust be banned, no block of the streets in the area, ban on carrying sticks in
the name of banner-festoon, party men’s procession will not be allowed to join the rally and both parties have to arrange the gatherings in the areas set by the police.
Earlier, the arch rivals-Awami League and BNP-declared the programmes to celebrate and condemn the hotly-debated January 5, 2014 general elections.
Both the parties sought permission from the DMP on Saturday. Later the BNP proposed an alternative venue – in front of its Nayapaltan Headquarters, while the Awami League said that they would hold the main event on Bangabandhu Avenue and 17 other spots of the capital.
Last year, the BNP could not hold the scheduled rally at Suhrawardy Udyan as its Chairperson Khaleda Zia had allegedly been “barred” from leaving her Gulshan office to attend the event to mark “Democracy Killing Day.” In protest, she announced countrywide indefinite blockade which claimed more than 100 lives in three months.
On January 5, 2014, the BNP boycotted the national parliamentary elections, refusing to take part in an election under the then incumbent Awami League government and restoration of the caretaker government system.
