BNP wants to show its strength by holding a successful event in Rajshahi, the last of its divisional showdowns ahead of the much-hyped Dhaka rally on December 10, a senior party leader said yesterday.
"It's the last divisional rally outside Dhaka. People have already shown no-confidence in the government. Our rally in Rajshahi will prove that the area is the BNP's stronghold," Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, the party's standing committee member and also an adviser to the rally committee, told The Daily Star yesterday.
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Defying the transport strike and alleged obstructions of police, several thousand BNP leaders and activists from eight districts of the northern division have already thronged the city to join today's rally.
The law enforcers did not allow them to enter the meeting venue saying the party men will be allowed when the rally will be held.
Around 100 marquees were set up at Hazrat Shah Makhdum Central Eidgah ground near the meeting venue -- Madrasa Maidan. Party men, who came to the city ahead of the rally due to the transport strike in the division, were staying in those since Wednesday night.
Fifty-year-old Hamid Ali of Sirajganj's Belkuchi upazila said he reached the city on Wednesday night along with 300 party men by bus. After staying in the open that night, they set up tents as the temperature drops at night.
He claimed that police damaged their tents and they had to set up those again.
Abdul Baten, who started his journey from Shibganj of Chapainawabganj early yesterday, said, "We started for Rajshahi by van and police intercepted us and then we started walking. After walking a few miles, we took three-wheelers. And finally, we reached around noon."
Due to the transport strike, the common people in the division also suffered immensely.
Take example of Abdul Alim, an official of postal services, said, "My uncle died. I need to go to Mohonpur upazila to see my uncle for the last time. But I did not get any bus to reach there."
In Rajshahi city, 17 checkpoints were set up for security purposes.
Meanwhile, Rajshahi-bound vehicles were being searched at eight police checkpoints. Besides, there is a Rab checkpoint in Natore to do so. People going to Rajshahi has complained of harassment in the name of search.
The opposition party men alleged that they faced obstructions by police at different points on their way to Rajshahi city.
Nasir Uddin, a BNP activist who drove his car to Rajshahi, told this newspaper that he put a sticker saying "Happy Marriage" on the vehicle and left Tangail to attend the rally.
Nasir added that on the way, he was questioned by police first time in Sirajganj and then in the Banpara and Harishpur Bypass areas of Natore. But police let him go because he introduced himself a bridegroom and had a sticker on the car, he added.
Saifur Rahman, superintendent of police, Nator, said they set up checkpoints in different upazilas of the district as part of regular patrol so that no party can create any chaos.
Meanwhile, the opposition party men are coming to Rajshahi city by train to join the rally.
The party has been holding rallies in protest of the price hike of essentials, gas, electricity, and fuel. Rallies have already been held in Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal, Faridpur, Sylhet and Cumilla.
[Our Natore correspondent contributed to this report.]