DHAKA: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will stage a demonstration at Muktangan on July 25 failing to get permission to observe mass hunger strike at Paltan Maidan.

BNP Joint Secretary-General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Thursday disclosed the change at an urgent press conference at the party’s Naya Paltan office in the capital.

“The government didn’t let us observe a peaceful programme for its high-handedness,” said Rizvi.

“On July 8, we sought government permission through application to hold the hunger-strike programme at Paltan Maidan on July 25, but it was rejected as the application halted in the ministry,” he told reporters.

Rizvi said that the government obstructed Chhatra Dal from staging demonstrations Wednesday deploying police force. They kept on resisting BNP’s programmes, filing ‘false’ cases against its people and arresting them, he also alleged.

Former MP Abul Hossain, president of ‘Swecchasebak Dal’ Habib Un Nabi Sohel and BNP’s assistant office secretary Asadul Karim also attended the press meet.

BDST: 1920 HRS, JULY 22, 2010