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Thursday | November 05, 2026 | Dhaka
BNP-led alliance says

72-hr hartal if Gazipur rallies not allowed

 New Nation
 Published: 12:00 AM, 24 December 2014

Ehsanul Haque Jasim :The BNP-led 20-party alliance has threatened to call a 72-hour nonstop countrywide hartal from January 6 if the alliance is not allowed to hold its January 3 and 5 rallies in the capital city.BNP insiders said that the anti-government movement to topple the government would get a new dimension if the BNP-led alliance is denied to hold the rallies. “If the government denies us the permission to hold the rallies, hartal, blockade and other tougher programmes might be announced,” said a BNP senior leader.The BNP has already sought the permission of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to hold the rallies at either of the venues at Suhrawardy Udyan, Motijheel Shapla Chattar and Paltan Intersection. “If the government does allow us to hold the peaceful rallies, we will be compelled to go for tougher programmes,” said BNP standing committee member Barrister Rafiqul Islam Mia. He said that the BNP-led alliance would ensure downfall of the government through a massive movement. BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia is going to launch the movement, he added. M Golam Mostafa Bhuiyan, secretary general of Bangladesh NAP, told The New Nation that if the government does not allow the January 3 and 5 rallies, the 20-party alliance will be compelled to call hartal from January 6. Hartal will come one after another until the demand of the alliance is met, he added.  Sources said that Khaleda Zia has decided to call hartal for January 6, 7 and 8 if the rallies were not allowed. Leaders of the alliance apprehend that the government won’t allow the January 3 and 5 rallies. But they won’t call hartal for January 4, the next day of the proposed first rally, due to the Eid-e-Miladunnabi. The sources further said that Khaleda Zia has prepared a roadmap of the anti-government movement to force the government to realise their key demand — fresh polls under a non-party government system. The roadmap of the movement has been taken targeting January 5, the first anniversary of the ‘one-sided’ election which was boycotted by the BNP-led alliance. If the government allows the January 5 rally, the BNP and its alliance partners will gather a huge number of people in the city on that day. Khaleda Zia from the rally may call hartal and other programmes, as she wants to take the movement to a height by March.Secretaries general of the 20-party alliance partners and their Dhaka city unit leaders held meetings on Monday to discuss the strategy of the movement. On Saturday, BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, chairperson’s adviser Abdul Awal Mintoo, standing committee member and Dhaka city unit convener Mirza Abbas and member secretary Habib-un-Nabi Khan Sohel also held a meeting with Chairperson Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence where they discussed the January 3 and 5 rallies.