Thousands swarm Golapbag ground for Saturday's BNP rally after DMP nod

Thousands of BNP supporters have started gathering at Golapbag field in the capital's Sayedabad area from this afternoon to join the party's 10 December rally.

The BNP on Friday afternoon finally got the nod from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to hold the rally at Golapbag field which will start at 11am Saturday.

As people continued to pour in, the crowd spread beyond the venue. They are chanting anti government slogans.

Meanwhile, a large number of law enforcement members have been deployed in the surrounding area of the venue.

BNP called on all parties who are ready to hold simultaneous movement against the government to join the rally.

At a press conference at the party chairperson's Gulshan office, BNP Standing Committee Member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the party will announce a 10-point charter of demand to oust the government at Saturday's rally. 

Law enforcement agencies also beefed up security in and around the rally venue to avert any untoward situations.

During a visit to the field, Farid Uddin, commanding officer of Rapid Action Battalion-10, said they found some loopholes in security as there are some high rise buildings and under-construction buildings around the field.

Both police and Rab members will try to tackle those risks, he said.

Earlier around 2:00pm, a team led by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Khandker Golam Faruq went to visit the venue.

BNP wanted to hold its Dhaka divisional rally in front of its party office in Capital's Nayapaltan area but they didn't get the approval and police blocked the road after Wednesday's clash between BNP and police personnel that left one dead and many more injured. 

BNP later proposed Kamalapur Stadium as an alternative venue to Nayapaltan for its 10 December rally in Dhaka in yesterday's meeting with the DMP commissioner. However, DMP gave the ground of Mirpur Government Bangla College as the alternative.