Senior leaders of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Thursday said that the day was not far when acting BNP chairman Tarique Rahman would return to the country.

They, at a protest rally in Dhaka, warned that the BNP would launch movement by uniting people to oust the ‘autocratic’ government of Awami League.

Dhaka City BNP north and south units orgainsed the rally in front of the National Press Club, protesting  against the verdict of a Narail court which sentenced Tarique to two years in jail and the verdict of a Satkhira court sentencing former member of parliament Habibul Islam Habib to 10 years in jail.

The BNP also held protest rallies in cities and districts across the country, party sources said.

Tarique was jailed in a case filed over defaming the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2014 and Habib was jailed along with 49 other BNP leaders and activists on charge of attacking the motorcade of Awami League president and the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina in 2002.

BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said that the day was not far when Tarique would return to the country from the UK.

Another standing committee member Gayeshwar Chandra Roy said that they must start a single-point-demand movement for the resignation of the Awami League government.

Referring to the government move to cancel the gallantry award of late president Ziaur Rahman, BNP vice-chairman Abdul Awal Mintoo said that the gallantry award of the freedom fighter could not be cancelled.

Central leader Amanullah Aman said that the Awami League government had remained in power through a farcical general election.

Senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said that the name of Ziaur Rahman would remain in the mind of people for his role.

Chaired by president of Dhaka City south unit BNP Habib Un Nabi Khan Sohel, central leaders of the party AZM Jahid Hossain, Abdus Salam, Habibur Rahman Habib, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal and Shirin Sultana, among others, spoke at the rally.