Will the political atmosphere remain peaceful eventually today (Saturday): this has been the question on the minds of many Dhakaties as political tensions have mounted in the past few days.
As fire-breathing political leaders hurled rhetorics at each other, law enforcers scaled up security arrangments and a memory of political violence seventeen years ago weighs heavily, the prospect of political harmony does not look bright.
To press home their demand for the national polls to be held under a neutral caretaker government, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), its allies, and like-minded groups will hold a pre-scheduled grand rally at Naya Paltan in the afternoon.
Within two kilometres of the venue, the ruling Awami League will also hold a peace rally at the gate of Baitul Mokarram mosque to maintain that no caretaker government is needed and to boost the government's achievements ahead of the next general election, which is slated for January next year.
The BNP has said it will gather over 100,000 party members in a show of political might, and most of them had already arrived in the capital by Friday. Similarly, the Awami League has informed police that its leaders and activists from Dhaka Metropolitan and adjacent districts will join the peace rally.
As political tensions centring on the rally continued to escalate, law enforcers have increased patrols and other security measures, including setting up security posts at the entry points of the capital and conducting stop and searches.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) initially said that it would not allow the BNP to hold the rally at Naya Paltan. However, on Friday evening, the home minister told media that the BNP would be allowed to organise its programme there.
The ruling Awami League (AL) has also made preparations to hold its peace rally in front of the South gate of the national mosque Baitul Mukarram. Party leaders have already warned that the city streets will be in their control.
Law-enforcing agencies, including police and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), have beefed up their security measures in anticipation of massive political agitations by both the ruling party and the opposition.
According to sources, BNP leaders and activists have started arriving in Dhaka from different parts of the city and gathering at its party office premises to join the grand rally.
However, they have alleged that the law-enforcing agencies have harassed them at different entry points of the capital city in the name of security measures.
Several hundreds of BNP leaders and activists have been detained by the police across the country in the last several days.
At a press briefing on Friday morning, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir warned that the government will be responsible if any untoward incidents happen during their rally.
"It is our constitutional right to hold a rally at Naya Paltan. Our rally will be peaceful," he said while replying to a query from the media about police permission.
"We [BNP] want to give a message to the government from our rally to realise our demand. We will put pressure on the government to accept our demands including holding elections under a neutral caretaker government," he said.
He said that BNP leaders and activists were arrested during the 2014 and 2018 elections, and the government has started arresting party leaders and activists ahead of another farcical election to be held early next year.
Fakhrul said, "If the government remains in power then there will be no free, fair and participatory elections in the country."
"People of the country could not cast their votes freely. So, this government must resign, dissolve parliament and hold national elections under a neutral caretaker government," he said.
While the BNP and other oppositions have been holding programmes seeking the resignation of the current government and holding the next election under a neutral government, the AL has taken an unmoved position to hold the next election under a partisan government.
Top AL leaders, including its General Secretary Obaidul Quader, have declared that they will hold a mega peace rally to thwart those who want to destabilise the country's democratic situation. They said the AL south and north city units will organise the programme.
At a press briefing on Friday, Obaidul Quader said the BNP carried out arsons in 2014 and 2015 to protect war criminals and obstruct the democratic process.
"…we have to fight against them," he said.
October 28, 2006, marked a violent political event as the city's Paltan area turned into a battlefield following a deadly clash between Jamaat-e-Islami and AL men.
Despite Jamaat's failure to get permission for a rally at Motijheel on Saturday, the party announced that they would gather - adding another source of tensions.
Police said they have tightened security measures across the city, especially in the Paltan and Gulistan areas. Police have installed a good number of close-circuit television cameras (CCTV) in the Paltan area, and its members are preparing to take position in plainclothes in addition to regular forces in the area.
Police have set up checkpoints at multiple entrances of the capital on Friday and started conducting searches, including vehicles and suspects coming from outside Dhaka. Police and elite forces RAB have also installed checkpoints at different areas inside the city.
The Darussalam Thana Police has set up a security checkpoint at the entrance of Dhaka Gabtali Bridge.
The spokesperson for Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Faruk Hossain told media that the police were not arresting opposition supporters ahead of the BNP's general meeting on Saturday, but those who have cases and arrest warrants.
More than 1,500 RAB members have been deployed in Dhaka for the safety of people's lives and property, and to prevent any kind of vandalism and violence around the gathering of the two political parties.
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