Dhaka: Dhaka district BNP and its associate bodies have announced a five-day programme demanding the release of BNP general secretary and party joint secretary general Amanullah Aman.

District BNP president Abdul Mannan announced the programmes at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club.

As part of the programmes, district BNP and its different associate bodies will hold five protest rallies at the Jatiya Press Club.

Mannan said the district unit Jubo Dal will hold a rally on Wednesday, while the district and Keraniganj unit Chhatra Dal on Friday, Swechchhasebak Dal on 10 August, district unit Krishak Dal on 12 August and Keraniganj Model Thana unit BNP on 16 August. All the rallies will start at 10:00am at the Jatiya Press club.

Earlier on Sunday, separate Dhaka courts sent Amanullah Aman to jail in a number of cases filed for arson attacks and vandalism during the BNP-led 20-party alliance’s blockade and hartal programme. The courts rejected his bail petitions in 47 out of 55 arson cases.

The cases were filed with different police stations in Dhaka during the hartals and blockades enforced by the BNP-led 20-party-alliance since 5 January this year.

Addressing the press conference Mannan said all the cases filed against Aman are politically motivated ones. ‘We demand immediate release of Amanullah Aman and withdrawal of the cases filed against him. We want to tell the government that it won’t be able to diminish BNP’s popularity by sending its leaders and activists to jail.’

He said their protest programmes will peacefully be held at the hall room of the Jatiya Press Club. ‘We’ll arrange the programmes with the permission of the proper authorities concerned and we hope the law enforcers won’t create any obstacle to those.’