20-party to stage rallies across country today
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
The BNP-led 20-party alliance is all set to stage rallies across the country, including in the city, today (Tuesday) protesting the National Broadcast Policy, 2014 as it thinks the government will gag the media with it, reports UNB.
As part of its countrywide programme, the alliance will hold the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital around 3pm.
BNP sources said its chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to address the rally as the chief guest.
The 20-party leaders and activists will also hold similar rallies in all the divisional cities and district towns.
Contacted, BNP joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said Monday that they have taken all-out preparations to make the rally a success.
Asked whether they have got permission for holding the programme at Suhrawardy Udyan, he said the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has verbally allowed them to hold the rally.
Rizvi, however, said they are yet to get any written permission from the DMP until 6:30pm. DMP Deputy Commissioner (Media) Masudur Rahman told UNB that they have given the 20-party permission for holding the rally at Suhrawardy Udyan with some conditions.
The conditions include not using any provocative words and carrying any sticks, large banners and concluding the rally before sunset.
The DMP authorities had also permitted the BNP-led alliance for holding its programmes on October 25, 2013 and January 20 this year in the last hours. The authorities, however, denied BNP and its associate organisations permission earlier at least thrice, including the one for a rally of Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum in the capital where the BNP chief was scheduled to address.
Earlier on Saturday, the party alliance staged a big, peaceful showdown in the city with their black-flag procession protesting the killing of over 2,000 innocent Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.