Staff Reporter :
BNP will hold a protest rally in Dhaka on Tuesday as the police have barred their prescheduled protest programme marking ‘Democracy Killing Day’ on the first anniversary of the 11th parliamentary election on Monday.
Party Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi made the announcement at a press conference at the party’s central office at Nayapaltan in the city on Monday.
“BNP had announced to hold a rally in the city today (Monday) to mark Democracy Killing Day. But the government has become so scared that it is not allowing us to stage our peacefully rally,” he said. Rezvi said, “Law enforcers in uniform and plain clothes have taken position in front of the party office and its adjacent areas, including Fakirer Pool Intersection, at about 11:30am. Even, they created a war-like situation in the entire Nayapaltan area.”
“We will hold thana-wise protest programmes in Dhaka city on Tuesday as we could not hold our programme today (Monday),” he added.
The BNP leader said that the ruling Awami League can hold rallies and meetings anytime, anywhere but the opposition parties have no right to do so as the entire country has turned into an empire of the party.”
He said, “There is one person-centered democracy now in Bangladesh where PM Sheikh Hasina is enjoining the highest freedom of expression while the opposition leaders, activists and dissents have become subhuman due to her misrule.”
As part of its countrywide programme, the party was scheduled to hold a rally in front of its Nayapaltan central office in the capital at 2:00pm to observe what it says ‘Democracy Killing Day’.
Meanwhile, the party leaders and activists wore black badges and a black flag was hoisted atop its central office at Nayapaltan in observance of the day.
BNP Standing Committee members at a meeting last week decided to observe December 30 as the ‘Democracy Killing Day’.
