Dhaka: BNP will hold a public rally in the capital on September 1, marking the party’s 40th founding anniversary.

Party senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programme at a press conference at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office on Tuesday, reports the UNB.

‘Our party has decided to hold a rally in Dhaka on September 1 on the occasion of our party’s founding anniversary,’ he said.

The BNP leader said their party will seek permission from the authorities concerned to hold the rally either at Suhrawardy Udyan or in front of their Nayapaltan central office.  

On September 1, 1978, late president Ziaur Rahman founded the party wooing leaders and activists from different parties with a 19-point programme to build a self-reliant Bangladesh.

Rizvi said their party will arrange two doa mahfil-–one at its Nayapaltan office at 11am and the other at BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office in the evening--on Wednesday marking Khaleda Zia’s 74th birthday.

Besides, he said, the party will arrange doa mahfil in all upazilas and districts across the country on August the same day to pray for her recovery from illness and release from jail.

Khaleda has been in Old Dhaka central jail since she was convicted in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case by a lower court on February 8.

She and her party have been observing August 15 as her birthday since 1991, but there are controversies about her actual date of birth and even the birth year.

Meanwhile, the nation is set to observe the National Mourning Day on Wednesday (Aug 15) commemorating the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975.