JANUARY 5 POLLS ANNIV : AL, BNP in row over rally venue [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

JANUARY 5 POLLS ANNIV : AL, BNP in row over rally venue

Local January 03, 2016

The ruling Awami League and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Saturday announced that they would hold rallies at Suhrawardy Udyan on January 5, the second anniversary of the general elections boycotted by all opposition parties.
Acting BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in the afternoon made the announcement of the rally to observe ‘democracy killing day’ on January 5, while the Awami League in the evening made the announcement of observing the day as the ‘victory day for democracy’.
On January 5, 2014, the general election was held amid widespread ballot stuffing, violence and boycott by all opposition parties. Different local and international quarters did not consider the election fair and participatory as candidates were elected unopposed in over half of the constituencies.
The BNP-led alliance called countywide nonstop transport blockade on January 5, 2015 as they were not allowed to hold a rally in the city on the day to observe ‘democracy killing day’ and police had laid siege to alliance leader Khaleda Zia’s political office at Gulshan keeping her confined to the office.
At a press conference at the party’s central office of Saturday afternoon, Fakhrul announced that BNP would hold a ‘peaceful’ rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Tuesday to mark the ‘democracy killing day’ and as part of movement to restore democracy. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia would address the rally.
The party’s district units would organise similar programmes on the day, he said.
Fakhrul said that they applied to the authorities concerned for permission to hold the rally.
The Awami League in an e-mailed release on Saturday evening announced that it would bring out processions and hold rallies at 18 venues including Surawardy Udyan across the city at 2:30pm on January 5 to celebrate the ‘victory day for democracy’.
The other venues are Purabi cinema premises at Mirpur-12, near Jurain level crossing, Jatrabari playground, near Rampura petrol pump, Dhanmondi road 32, Mirpur-1 intersection, Lalbagh, Gulshan, Sutrapur, Tejgaon, Sabujbagh, Uttara, Kamrangir Char, Mohammadpur Town Hall, Kafrul, Bangabandhu Square at Gulistan and Mahakhali.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, also the AL president, however, would not attend any of the rallies. Party central leaders divided in 18 teams would address the rallies and join the processions.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner (media) Maruf Hossain Sorder said that they received the application of BNP seeking permission to hold the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan and the decision on the application would be made later.
Asked if the Awami League applied for permission to hold rally at the same venue on the same day, Maruf avoided a direct answer saying that they would made a decision on receiving application from the Awami League.
Earlier in the day, Awami League leaders told New Age that the party did not take any programme to celebrate the day this year with a hope that BNP would not ‘create any trouble this time.’
A number of central and Dhaka city Awami League leaders said that they were taking preparation for the programmes taken for celebrating the homecoming day of the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on January 10.
They, however, said that AL leaders and activists would be on the streets to face BNP if the opposition party tried to threaten to harm peace in the name of any programme on January 5.
Awami League organising secretary Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury said on Saturday afternoon that they had no special programme to celebrate January 5.
‘This year we would celebrate the day in different ways…There will be countrywide programmes to highlight the significance of January 5 polls and the achievements of our government in the past two years,’ he said.
Dhaka city Awami League acting president MA Aziz said that they had no special programme in Dhaka on January 5, rather they were preparing for the programmes on homecoming day.
Fakhrul at the press conference hoped that the government and authorities concerned would not try to foil the rally for the sake of constitutional functioning of democracy.
Fakhrul reiterated his call to the government for sitting for a discussion with the opposition without wasting time to create a healthy democratic atmosphere for making democracy sustainable.
Otherwise, it would be hard to resist ‘extremism’ and ‘militancy’ as the nation was worried over serious apprehension of rising of militancy, Fakhrul said.
Earlier, a joint meeting of BNP and its associate organisations was held at the central office with Fakhrul in the chair to finalise the programmes of January 5 and the celebration of 80th birth anniversary of late president Ziaur Rahman, also the BNP founder, on January 19.
The programmes taken marking Zia’s birth anniversary included hoisting party and national flags at the party offices across the country, placing wreath and offer fateha at Zia’s grave by the party leaders and activists led by Khaleda Zia and discussion.