Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami will hold a rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital Dhaka today to press the party鈥檚 seven-point demand.
Bangladesh Railway will operate four special trains to transport leaders and supporters of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to Dhaka for today鈥檚 rally.
The rally titled 鈥楯atiya Samabesh鈥� will start at 2:00pm, the party鈥檚 secretary general, Mia Golam Parwar, said at a press conference in the National Press Club in the capital on July 17.
He said that amir of the party Shafiqur Rahman would chair the rally and聽 leaders of different political parties would speak at the programme. The rally will be followed by a cultural programme, he added.
All the preparations for holding the rally have already been completed and party leaders and activists from across the country will join it, Parwar said.
The party鈥檚 demands include ensuring a level playing field for all political parties, holding local government polls before next general elections, holding next general elections in the proportional representation system, holding trials of the fascists responsible for mass killings during the students-people uprising in July-August past year and holding visible reforms of the ruling system.
According to railway officials, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has rented the special trains through official procedures, and ticket fares will be collected from all passengers.
The operations of the special trains were scheduled to start Friday night and will end tomorrow morning on the Dhaka鈥揅hattogram, Dhaka鈥揗ymensingh, Dhaka鈥揜ajshahi, and Dhaka鈥揝irajganj routes.
鈥業f the special trains come out to be commercially viable, we will always run such trains,鈥� Farid Ahmed, general manager of Bangladesh Railway鈥檚 west zone, told 抖阴精品 on July 17 night.
He mentioned that Jamaat had applied for the trains earlier and they would run two trains on Dhaka-Rajshahi and Dhaka-Srajganj routes, which have weekly day off on Saturday.
Ticket fares for the seats in the special trains would be higher than the usual ones as the trains would run non-stop and exclusively carry Jamaat supporters, Farid added.
The railways ministry on Friday issued a press release, saying that in social media some people were criticising the Bangladesh Railway鈥檚 step to give special trains to a political party.
The ministry said that they had previously given special trains for different political parties鈥� programmes and they were giving special trains only for transporting Jamaat supporters to prevent the other passengers from riding the trains without tickets and Jamaat paid Tk聽32 lakh in advance for the trains.
According to the railway, on the Rajshahi-Dhaka-Rajshahi route, the Madhumati Express is scheduled to start from Rajshahi at 1:00am today and will reach the capital at 6:00am the same day.
The train is scheduled to leave Dhaka at 8:15pm today and will reach Rajshahi at 1:15am tomorrow.
On the Sirajganj-Dhaka-Sirajganj route, the Sirajganj Express is scheduled to start from Sirajganj Bazar at 6:00am today and will reach the capital at 9:30am the same day.
The train is scheduled to leave Dhaka at 11:55pm today and will reach Sirajganj at 3:30am tomorrow.
The special train on the Chattogram-Dhaka-Chattogram route was scheduled to start from Chattogram at 11:40pm on Friday and it will reach the capital at 6:00am today.
The same train will leave Dhaka at 11:30pm today and will reach the port city at 5:30am tomorrow.
The Mymensingh special train is scheduled to start from Mymensingh at 6:00am today and will reach Dhaka at 10am same day. It will leave the capital at 7:00pm and reach Mymensingh at 11:00pm today.
Dhaka divisional railway manager Mohiuddin Arif said that the special trains on the Dhaka鈥揅hattogram and Dhaka鈥揗ymensingh routes would be operated with old compartments taken from workshops.
No coaches would be taken from any running trains, he added.
Earlier in 2023, the railway had arranged seven special trains for leaders and activists of Awami League, which was outed from power on August 5, 2024, in a mass uprising, to join a rally in Rajshahi on January 29 and eight trains on the Mymensingh route to join another rally on March 11.
Railway officials at that time had said that the AL leaders and activists would pay all the ticket fares.
