The BNP high command has alerted its district and upazila units in Gazipur that they will have to fight back if their Chairperson Khaleda Zia is barred from attending a rally in Gazipur on Saturday.
The party is determined to hold the rally even if the authorities deny them permission. They have planned to sit in for a gathering at the very place they are blocked either by authorities or ruling party men.
Insiders said BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had asked district leaders and activists to make all-out preparations to make the rally successful. She passed the order in a meeting held at her Gulshan office on Wednesday night.
Yesterday afternoon, senior leaders from the party’s Dhaka city unit held a meeting with their convener Mirza Abbas at his Dhaka residence.
Fazlul Haque Milon, organising secretary of Dhaka Division and president of Gazipur district BNP, said: “We will hold a rally at any cost. If we are barred, we will resist. We are not going to backtrack.”
The BNP-led 20-party alliance announced holding a rally at the Bhawal Badre Alam College playground in Gazipur on December 27; Khaleda was scheduled to speak there.
Later, Gazipur district unit Chhatra League, student front of the ruling Awami League, announced a rally of their own at the same place and day.
Things heated up in the area as men from both parties – especially those from the student youth fronts – tried to take over the college playground. Subsequently, police cordoned off the playground to avoid untoward incidents.
On Tuesday night, Chhatra League and Jubo League activists vandalised and torched the banners and festoons that the BNP men have put up to publicise their rally and stuck theirs. Police later took control of the ground and its adjacent areas.
A senior BNP leader said some 20,000-30,000 leaders and activists will accompany and guard Khaleda Zia’s motorcade on December 27.
“If we are obstructed at Tongi, then the rally will be held right there,” the leader said.
Gazipur district police chief Harun-ur-Rashid said: “We have received application from both the parties and are evaluating them. But, if they intend to create anarchy in the name of a rally, we will not allow anyone.”
Harun also said: “Both parties have already tried to take control of the playground, but we have driven them away. Until a decision is made, we hope that they will be able to restrain themselves.” On Wednesday, centring Khaleda Zia’s court appearance in a graft case, the Bakshibazar area in Old Dhaka turned into a battlefield as BNP and Awami League men locked into an hour-long clash. Allegedly, police remained silent in the beginning and eventually attacked on the opposition men to disperse the mob. Days before the Wednesday skirmishes, there were media reports that the BNP had been planning a major showdown.