Crowds converging on Golapbagh field for Dec 10 BNP rally

Thousands of BNP leaders and activists started gathering at Golapbagh ground in Dhaka since Friday afternoon as the party was finally given permission for holding its last divisional rally there on Saturday.

By the evening on Friday, thousands reached the venue in advance to join the anti-government rally that will formally begin at 11 am.

People were seen coming to Golapbagh field with small processions from different parts of the city chanting anti-government slogans.

BNP Dhaka city unit member secretary Aminul Haque said they will set up the stage and make all other arrangements, including setting up loudspeakers, overnight.

He said lakhs of people will join the rally to make it a huge success.

Earlier on Friday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq and a team from Rapid Action Battalion-10 visited the venue.

Meanwhile, BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at a press conference called upon the Dhaka city dwellers to spontaneously join their party’s rally in Golapbagh ground peacefully to give the government a befitting reply to its efforts to foil a democratic programme.

“We will hold the programme in Dhaka peacefully as we did in nine other divisional cities. We call upon people from all walks of life to participate in our programme spontaneously,” said Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, a former cabinet minister and the most senior member of the BNP's standing committee.

Crowds converging on Golapbagh field for Saturday’s BNP rally

He alleged that the government has created unnecessary chaos over giving the party permission for a venue to hold Saturday’s rally and bought time with an evil motive to foil the programme.

“We believe people will give a befitting reply to the government’s evil efforts by spontaneously joining the rally on Saturday,” he said.

Mosharraf said their party will start the rally at 11 am on Saturday on the Golapbagh ground as Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has already given permission to use the venue.

BNP had the plan to hold the rally at Nayapaltan in front of its Nayapaltan central office, but the government first gave the party permission to arrange the programme at Suhrawardy Udyan, but they denied to go there for the rally on security grounds.