As part of its countrywide scheduled programme, BNP leaders and activists will now stage a sit-in programme in Dhaka on Tuesday after forming a human chain on Monday protesting the jailing of its chairperson Khaleda Zia in a graft case.

The party leaders and followers will observe the programme from 11:00am to 12 noon in front of the Jatiya (National) Press Club also demanding the release of Khaleda immediately, said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, reports the UNB.

He came up with the announcement at a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

‘Our scheduled sit-in programme will be held in front of the Jatiya Press Club from 11:00am to 12noon tomorrow (Tuesday) like the human chain we formed today (Monday). We hope our leaders and activists will make it a success with their spontaneous participation in a peaceful manner,’ he said.

The BNP leader said their party’s district, thana, upzila and city units will also observe the programmes at their convenient time and places. ‘We would like to say we won’t return home until our leader (Khaleda) is freed.’

 He alleged that though they are observing their programmes in a peaceful manner, police are arresting them for no reason.

Rizvi claimed that 18 leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies, including its vice chairman Shamsuzzaman Dudu, were arrested on their way back home after joining the human chain programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club on Monday.

He claimed that around 4,400 BNP leaders and activists have so far been arrested across the country over the last 14 days.

The BNP leader demanded the government immediately release their party men and withdraw all the cases filed against them.

Meanwhile, hundreds of BNP leaders and activists formed a human chain in front of the Jatiya Press Club from 10:3am to 12noon on Monday.

On Saturday, Rizvi announced a three-day protest programme at a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office.

As part of the programmes, the party leaders and followers will also observe a hunger strike from 9am to 5pm on Wednesday across the country.

On Thursday last, a special court here convicted Khaleda and sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Earlier, BNP leaders and activists staged demonstrations on Friday and Statuary all over the country, including in the capital, amid obstruction by police protesting Khaleda’s conviction.