The ruling Awami League leaders are threatening opposition men to stop them from joining their rally, the BNP alleged yesterday.

“Mohammed Nasim [14-party alliance coordinator] at a meeting urged their party men to resist BNP leaders and activists so that they cannot go to the rally. Jahangir Kabir Nanak [AL leader] directed them to break the hands and legs of our activists ... this is their 'democratic language',” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.

Addressing a press conference at party's Nayapaltan headquarters yesterday, Fakhrul said after such remarks by the ruling party leaders, people would now consider who started political violence and who provoked it.

He said they tried to hold the rally on Thursday, but the Dhaka Metropolitan Police asked them to arrange it on Saturday during the weekend, at Suhrawardy Udyan. “That's why we have decided to hold the rally on Saturday.”

The party will announce its future course of action and strategy at its Saturday's rally, Fakhrul said.

He said police are now hesitant as the Awami League-led 14-party grand alliance would hold a meeting at Mohanagar Natya Mancha the same day. “Their venue is far from ours. So, we cannot understand what the problem is if our programme is held on the same day.”

Fakhrul said they held a joint meeting of their party for making the rally a success.

The BNP leader declined to comment on whether leaders of other political parties -- especially those who are trying to unite against the government -- would be invited to the rally.

Meanwhile, a BNP delegation, led by its Publicity Affairs Secretary Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, met the DMP authorities around 1:00pm to know about the permission for their rally.

Annie told The Daily Star that they gave the DMP authorities an alternative proposal for holding their rally at Suhrawardy Udyan on Sunday. “The authorities would inform them about their decision later. They asked us to hold the rally at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh, on Saturday.”