Road to Rallies: Smooth for AL activists, bumpy for BNP ones

BNP supporters had to go through police check points one after another before they could make it to their rally in the capital's Nayapaltan yesterday.

From Thursday evening to yesterday afternoon, police stopped vehicles entering the city and asked people why they were going there.

Police in uniform and plainclothes even checked people's phones to see their political affiliations and detained those who turned out to be BNP supporters.

BNP activists who came to the rally from different districts said they had to lie to the police about the purpose of their visit to the city.

Police detained at least 68 people at several check points in Savar and 30 in ​​Gazipur. Munshiganj Jubo Dal General Secretary Masud Rana 50-60 others were detained at the entrance to Dhaka.

People suffered as there was a scarcity of public transport in the capital and the adjacent cities.

At Chashara intersection of Narayanganj yesterday morning, Amirul Islam said, "My wife and I must visit a doctor at the Institute of Child and Mother Health in Dhaka's Matuail. But we have not seen a bus in half an hour. Now we may have to hire an autorickshaw for a lot of money."

Police set up multiple check points in Abdullahpur, Amin Bazar, Gabtoli, Basila, Savar, Keraniganj, Kanchpur, Signboard, Mouchak, Tarabo, Bhulta, Pagla, Chandra, Singair, and on Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways.

Boat services across the Buriganga in Keraniganj remained suspended from dawn to dusk.

At Amin Bazar, our Savar correspondent saw that buses and trucks full of people chanting pro-Awami League slogans and holding pro-Awami League banners were not stopped at the check points.

At least 353 people arrested overnight were brought to Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court. Of them 284 were shown on papers as arrested in 52 cases filed with different police stations in the city, while 69 others under sections 54, 55 and 151 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Nure Azam Babu, president of Sariakandi upazila BNP in Bogura, said he and over 150 other BNP supporters had to "sneak into the capital".

To avoid getting arrested on the way, the activists divided into several small groups and started boarding buses, trains and trucks on Wednesday morning.

"My bus was checked in Boghura and in the capital's Gabtoli. I lied about the reason why I was travelling," he said, adding that two members of his team named Shyamol Mahmud and Russel Iqbal were arrested at a hotel in the Fakirapool area.

Murad Kadir, secretary of Taranagar union BNP in Keraniganj, said he and 11 other BNP activists came to Dhaka in three auto-rickshaws. They were stopped by police around 10:00am.

"All of us told different stories about where we were going," he added.