Khaleda Zia discussing preparations for the Jan 5 rally with senior leaders at her Gulshan office on Monday night.
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will address Tuesday’s rally in front of the party headquarters at Naya Paltan.
Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi informed the media about Khaleda’s participation.
The party was given police permission on Monday to hold the rally.
The BNP is organising the rally to mark the second anniversary of the last general election, which it boycotted.
It had chosen Suhrawardy Udyan as the venue for the rally to observe Jan 5 as the ‘Murder of Democracy Day’.
Tension rose when the ruling Awami League, too, chose to use the same venue to celebrate their victory in the polls and mark it as the ‘Protection of Democracy Day’.
Police gave both the parties conditional permission to hold the rallies in Dhaka.
The Awami League is holding its rally in front of its headquarters at Bangabandhu Avenue.
This will be the first public programme of the BNP after the debacle in last week’s municipal elections.
Khaleda last addressed a rally at Naya Paltan in 2012.
On Monday night, she met the senior leaders of her party.
Ruhul Kabir Rizvi briefing media after getting permission for the Naya Paltan rally.
They later said the BNP chief urged them to make the rally a success and keep it peaceful.
The leaders who met Khaleda included Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Standing Committee members Moudud Ahmed, Mahbubur Rahman, ASM Hannan Shah, Jamirudin Sircar, and Abdul Moyeen Khan.
Rizvi said in a media conference earlier in the day that the rally would start at 2pm and end before Maghrib prayers.
The authorities have permitted the rally to be held on the street stretching from Nightingale Restaurant at Kakrail to Fakirapool intersection, he said.
“We have secured all administrative permissions for the rally,” Rizvi said.
The BNP leader urged the workers of the party and its affiliates to hold the programme peacefully.
“Please don’t cause any traffic jams and come to the rally in an orderly manner. Leave your vehicles at the end of the permitted stretch,” he said.
She also asked them not to “act provocatively” while going to the rally.
Tension had mounted when the Awami League and the BNP called simultaneous programmes on the first anniversary of the 10th parliamentary election on Jan 5 last year.
Having been barred from holding the rally last year, Khaleda had called for a blockade that lasted for three months and left over 100 people dead.
Source: Bd news24
