The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Sunday alleged that the government was using different state agencies to create an unstable situation to foil the party’s Dhaka divisional rally on December 10.

‘They [government people] are accusing BNP people after blasting cocktails themselves. The police are behind every occurrence that is happening ahead of the BNP rally,’ BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said at a press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan central office.

He complained that the government was trying to create an unnecessary catastrophe by focusing on the Dhaka rally.

‘Ministers provoked by talking unnecessarily about this gathering and saying Khela Hobe [game will be played]. Khela Hobe cannot be a political language,’ he said.

Fakhrul alleged that a checkpoint had been set up in front of BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s house to thwart the BNP’s mass rally on December 10.

‘Her [Khaleda’s] human rights are being severely violated by threatening to send her to jail. She is being stressed,’ Fakhrul said.

He demanded to remove the barricade in front of Khaleda Zia’s house.

Alleging that the government had obstructed grassroots programmes by using state machinery, the BNP leader said that they had created obstacles in all directions.

‘Transport went on strike. They are using the police. Many fictitious cases have been filed. For a few days, the government has been trying to cause unnecessary destruction by focusing on the Dhaka rally,’ he said.

Fakhrul alleged that Jatyatabadi Juba Dal president Sultan Salauddin Tuku and vice-president Nurul Islam Nayan were detained without arrest warrants on their way back to Dhaka from the mass rally in Rajshahi.

He said that this had been done only to suppress this movement and the leaders and activists. ‘Without a warrant, no one can be arrested. But they were arrested without arrest warrants. As of now, neither the car nor the driver has been reported.

Referring to this as another example of the government’s ongoing repression before the rally, Fakhrul said that government agencies were doing various kinds of sabotage to destabilise the Naya Paltan area.

Leaders and workers are being arrested wholesale after staging events, he said.

Fakhrul said that the government was carrying out acts of sabotage and that operations were being carried out in the name of catching militants in messes and residential hotels.

‘The government did similar things in 2013, 2014, and 2015. On the one hand, there is a militant drama and on the other hand there is a drama of arson. Now the same bully has started again,’ he added.

Fakhrul said that the rally in Dhaka would be peaceful.

‘We have the right to hold a rally anywhere. The talks of vandalism and chaos are being spread to undermine our democratic rights,’ he said.

In response to a question from journalists, Mirza Abbas, a member of the BNP standing committee, said at the press conference that the BNP would consider an alternative proposal for the rally venue instead of the government’s proposed Suhrawardy Udyan.

A delegation of the BNP met with Dhaka Metropolitan Police commissioner Khandaker Golam Faruque on Sunday at his office to discuss the rally venue and the arrests of the party leaders and activists before the rally.

Responding to journalists, BNP Dhaka city north unit convener Amanullah Aman said that the party’s publicity secretary, Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, would discuss the venue with senior DMP officials.

He expressed optimism that the discussion would bring a solution.

BNP Dhaka city south unit convener Abdus Salam said that they remain firm in their decision to hold the rally in front of the party’s central office at Naya Paltan, but are open to discussion about an alternative.

According to Salam, the rally cannot be held in the police-permitted Suhrawardy Udyan.

BNP leaders did not name any alternative venues.

Salam said that police had arrested around 750 leaders and activists of the party in the past few days in the capital as the law enforcement agencies had been carrying out block raids.Even leaders and activists, who are on bail in all cases, have been facing arrests, he said.