BNP preparing for Nov 7 rally

“Our party and all its associate bodies are taking full preparation for a peaceful rally in front of our central office,” BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said at a press briefing in Naya Paltan office on Sunday. “The government is playing games with our programme on November 8,” Rizvi said. “We sought permission for our rally at Suhrawardy Udyan, but the government did not permit it. We do not know why it was not given. After that, we sought permission to hold the rally in front of our central office, but we have not received permission yet,” he said. Police were giving wrong information about the issue, Rizvi claimed. The party has been holding the National Revolution and Solidarity Day rally for the last 40 years, but this was the first time that the government had not came up with a permission out of vengeance, said Rizvi. He also claimed the government was using the police to arrest its party members without any reason to create panic among the public. On Saturday, Rizvi said his party was still waiting for police permission to stage the rally. He also showed the request letter for the permission for the rally and said: “Yesterday we submitted our request to hold the rally in front of our party office. But police claimed they did not receive the letter.” “It is very irresponsible and biased of the police to refuse permission to hold our rally,” he added. The government is using the police to arrest BNP activists to create panic among the general public. On Saturday afternoon, police arrested five BNP leaders including Taiful Islam Tipu, assistant office secretary of BNP central office. Earlier Rizvi said BNP was committed to holding its planned November 8 rally on the Suhrawardy Udyan grounds “at any cost.”