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No ban imposed

BNP says cops gave nod to its rally in Dhaka today; tension flares up as cityAL,Jubo League also prepare for rally, human chain

Staff Correspondent
There will be no ban on rallies and processions in the capital today, but the situation remains tense as the ruling Awami League and the opposition BNP are set to press ahead with their programmes today.
While the BNP will bring out a mass procession led by its Chairperson Khaleda Zia, the AL will organise a rally and form a human chain.
After a meeting with high police offi-
cials, BNP leaders yesterday said they had got verbal permission for today's programme, arranged to mount pressure on the government for a restoration of the caretaker government system.
Anwar Hossain, deputy commissioner (Motijheel) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star last night that the opposition had been given permission on condition that its procession would be confined between Nayapaltan and Moghbazar.
Originally, the procession was planned to begin at the BNP's Nayapaltan headquarters at 2:00pm and end at Bangla Motors. The party's standing committee last night decided to cut the route short to bring the procession to an end at the Moghbazar intersection.
Emerging from the meeting around 9:00pm, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the party had shortened the route out of concern for the chairperson's security.
Earlier on Saturday, the BNP rescheduled its Sunday mass procession for today after the police banned rallies and processions in the capital and four other cities amid fears of violent clashes between the rival parties. The AL also postponed its rally on the day.
However, tension began to heighten yesterday with the ruling party deciding to hold its rally today.
In other developments, the ban on gatherings in Chittagong was withdrawn yesterday. There will, therefore, be no bar to the opposition's mass procession in the port city today. In Sylhet city, the ban stays for today and tomorrow, while in Khulna, it remains in force only for today.
The BNP's mass procession programme elsewhere in the country yesterday was observed mainly at the
district level. At least four people were killed in violence during the processions in Laxmipur and Chandpur.
An hour after the planned start of the BNP's procession, a rally of Dhaka city AL will begin on Bangabandhu Avenue at 3:00pm. Besides, the Jubo League, the youth body associated with the AL, will form a human chain stretching from Motijheel to Shahbagh at 11:00am.
Talking to The Daily Star late yesterday afternoon, Masudur Rahman, additional deputy commissioner of police, said there would be no ban on rallies and processions in the capital today.
Replying to a query, he said, "We have neither imposed any ban nor have given them [BNP] permission; we are just keeping a close watch on the situation.”
Police sources said the BNP leaders had been asked to show utmost restraint during today's programme.
Earlier in the day, BNP lawmaker Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee and city unit joint membersecretary Abdus Salam met DMP Deputy Commissioner Anwar Hossain to discuss the issue of permission for today's programme.
“I have told the two BNP leaders that their appeal would be conveyed to the higher authorities,” said Anwar.
The two leaders, however, claimed that police had given them verbal permission.
The ruling AL too has urged the BNP to hold today's programme peacefully. Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, general secretary of Dhaka city AL, said, “We have no headache about the opposition's programme. We will observe our own programme. I hope the government will help the opposition observe its programme peacefully.”
The same day, LGRD Minister and AL General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said the Dhaka city AL had declared its programme to protest the "conspiracies being hatched against the government and the war crimes trial”.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, on the other hand, said his party had demonstrated tolerance by deferring Sunday’s procession, but the ruling party had once again declared counter programmes as, in his view, it wanted to create chaos.
At a rally in Chittagong on January 9, Khaleda Zia announced countrywide mass processions for January 29 and a grand rally in the capital for March 12 to press for the restoration of the caretaker government system.
The caretaker provision was scrapped through the 15th amendment to the constitution last year.