BNP chief Khaleda Zia on Friday asked Opposition leaders and activists to defy a ban on a planned march on Dhaka, demanding scrapping of the January 5 polls amid deepening political impasse in Bangladesh.
"I hope you will join our gathering, and defy all the obstacles that are being placed in our way, so that we can save democracy," Zia said in a video message shortly after police banned the rally on Sunday dubbed as "march for democracy". "You will carry on with the movement until the fall of the Government even if I cannot stay beside you," Zia said.
"The Opposition has been denied permission," police spokesman Masudur Rahman told reporters, citing fears of security breaches in the capital as reasons for the denial of permission. Zia, earlier this week, asked the people to march towards Dhaka on December 29 from all over the country to "protect democracy". "This march will be historic, we have named it as 'march for democracy'...I urge all able bodied countrymen cutting across their affiliation, religion and class to join the rally on December 29," Zia said.
She demanded the controversial January 5 polls plan to be shelved fearing "it could be last nail to the coffin of democracy". Zia accused her arch-rival Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of "killing democracy to consolidate power for ever".
The Government has vowed to resist the march, saying it was a plan to expose the country to total anarchy. "We will not allow her to create anarchy," Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, State
Minister for law, told reporters on Thursday. PTI