Dhaka: The rally of Jatiya Oikyafront, led by Dr Kamal Hossain, began at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital to drum up public support in favour of the alliance’s various demands and announce its plans over the next general election.

The rally activities formally started around 1:30pm on Tuesday with recitation from the holy Quran, reports the UNB.

Dr Kamal will address the rally as the chief guest while JSD president ASM Abdur Rob as the main speaker with BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in the chair.

On Monday, the alliance got conditional permission from the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to hold the public rally at Suhrawardy Udyan.

As per the conditions, the rally must be concluded by 5:00pm.

It is the third rally of the Oikyafront as the alliance held rallies in Sylhet and Chattogram on October 24 and 27 respectively.

Thousands of leaders and activists of the BNP holding placards, banners and portraits of its founder Ziaur Rahman, chairperson Khaleda Zia and acting chairman Tarique Rahman started gathering at the rally venue since 11:00am.

They were chanting various slogans demanding Khaleda’s release from jail.

Huge law enforcers have been deployed around the rally venue to maintain law and order.

On Monday night, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said they will announce action programmes from the rally to push for their various demands for holding the forthcoming election in a fair and credible manner.

Fakhrul, however, said they will not announce any such programme which may hamper their scheduled talks with the Prime Minister on Wednesday morning.

The rally is going to be held a day before the Oikyafront leaders’ second phase of small-group talks with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The dialogue will be held at Ganobhaban at 11:00am on Wednesday.

Oikyafront leaders said they will give some important messages for the nation from the rally ahead of the national election.

The Oikyafront’s seven-point demand includes installation of a neutral interim government, dissolution of parliament, reconstitution the Election Commission, release of all the political prisoners, deployment of army and cancellation of the move to use Electronic Voting Machines (EVMS) for holding the next polls in fair and acceptable manner.

On October 13, BNP together with Dr Kama Hossain-led Jatiya Oikya Prokriya, JSD and Nagorik Oikya launched the Jatiy Oikyafront to press for their seven-point demand.