Although BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia announced on Sunday that their March for Democracy would continue on Monday, no activists of the BNP-led 18-party alliance took to the street across the country today due to strong resistance by law enforcers and ruling party men.
On Sunday, BNP chief Khaleda Zia, being failed to come out of the police barricade set in front of her residence, vented anger and said their March for Democracy programme will continue on Monday, no matter what.
However, like Sunday, no leaders and activists of the opposition combine were seen on the streets in the capital and elsewhere across the country.
Opposition leader Khaleda Zia also did not come out of her Gulshan residence to join the programme.
Meanwhile, BNP-backed lawyers staged demonstrations on the Supreme Court premises and were locked in a clash with activists of ruling Awami League and its front organisations.
Law enforcers took positions at the city’s eight entry points, different strategic points and intersections and on various roads inside the city since early morning, preventing the opposition leaders and activists from converging on any point of the city.
Meanwhile, plainclothes police picked up BNP vice-chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury in front of party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence on Monday evening.
Witnesses said a team of the Detective Branch of Dhaka Metropolitan Police asked the BNP leader to get onto their vehicle as soon as he came out of Khaleda’s residence around 7:35pm after British High Commissioner Robert Gibson’s meeting with the opposition leader.
Two hours after detaining them from the gate of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan residence on Monday afternoon, police released three female BNP leaders, including its vice-chairman Selima Rahman.
The two others are Rasheda Begum Heera MP and former MP Newaz Halima Arlee.
On December 24, BNP chairperson called upon people from all walks of life to march towards Dhaka carrying the national flag to press home their demand for having the next national election under a non-party neutral administration.
However, the DMP authorities rejected the BNP plea seeking permission to hold the rally in front its Nayapaltan office.
Source: UNB Connect