Infighting, enthusiasm and poor signal: Inside the highly anticipated AL-BNP rallies

It was around 4:30pm on Wednesday, when a fight broke out in front of Hotel Bakshi at DIT Extension Road, nearly 500 metres from Naya Paltan, between two groups. 

An otherwise lifeless locality suddenly came to life, with everyone around assuming that a highly anticipated clash between Bangladesh Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) had finally broken out. 

One such clash was what everyone had been fearing ever since it was announced that both Awami League and BNP would hold rallies on the same day, the former in front of Baitul Mukarram National Mosque, and the latter in front of the party's central office in Naya Paltan. 

The two venues are just about a kilometre apart. 

However, soon everyone came to realise that the clash was not actually between Awami League and BNP. Instead, it was between two separate factions of BNP, over a trivial matter regarding which faction would stand ahead of the other. The fight calmed down within five minutes, but not before leaving two people seriously injured. 

The BNP activists now seemed disgusted. To them, a clash with Awami League was far better than this "intra-party conflict". 

"This is the last thing we wanted from this rally," one BNP activist said. "We all came here with one point in mind: overthrowing the government, and here we are fighting against each other!"  

However, that BNP activist can take some consolation from knowing that his party men were not the only ones to indulge in intra-party conflict. Earlier in the day, a similar scenario was also on display at Awami League's rally. At around 1:45 pm, another fight broke out between the supporters of Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi and Dhaka Metropolitan Awami League President Abu Ahmed over who would sit near the front of the stage, resulting in both sides throwing chairs at each other.

But on a grander level, not only did any clashes not happen between the two parties, but also the rallies failed to deliver in terms of leaving any significant impact on the people, other than bringing the Dhaka traffic to a standstill. 

The so-called historic face-off between Awami League and BNP, coming after many moons, ended in a whimper, not a bang. 

Breath of fresh air vs business-as-usual

The day, however, started on a promising note, as BNP leaders, activists and supporters thronged to the capital's Naya Paltan area since early morning. By 12 pm, the entire locality – from Fakirapool to Kakrail and the surrounding areas – were jam-packed with BNP activists. 

They arrived in small processions, wearing caps or Bangladesh's flags, holding colourful festoons and placards, and all chanting pro-Zia and anti-government slogans.  

"We haven't seen so many BNP activists together in Naya Paltan for nearly a decade," said Hashem Ali, a local shopkeeper, reminiscing the time of BNP's fire anarchism and violent demonstrations back in 2013-14. 

The BNP activists were also excited, having assembled at the centre of the capital in such huge numbers after a long time. 

"We have been out of power for the last three terms, but this time, we feel confident; we are going to have a full-fledged movement ahead of the upcoming general election," said Harun-ur-Rashid, a BNP loyalist who came from Joypurhat to attend the rally. 

Many BNP activists had been waiting under the scorching sun since at least 9 am in the morning, and some of them were hoping for rain. Finally, rain began to pour down in full force at around 1:50 pm, just 10 minutes before the formal inauguration of the rally. 

"This is obviously a blessing from Allah, who is always with us," said Joynal Hossain of Kamrangirchar Jubo Dal. 

But not everyone was happy with the downpour. One of them was Shamsul Alam from Kamalapur. "I assume at least 10,000-15,000 more people will arrive from different parts of the country, but this rain means they will be delayed," he said. 

Somehow, the same level of enthusiasm was missing from Awami League's rally. The number of attendees for their peace rally was smaller, and the activists present also lacked the energy evident in BNP's rally. It seemed as if attending the peace rally was simply a formality for them. 

"You have to understand the context," said an Awami League activist Shahin Alam from Moghbazar. "We have been holding such rallies since time immemorial. This is nothing new or special for us. The sole purpose of this rally is to make sure that peace prevails and BNP supporters cannot create any chaos." 

Security, security and more security

Some young – primarily teenagers – BNP activists tried to invade the Awami League rally at around 3:30 pm, as they started a procession from Naya Paltan towards Baitul Mukarram, chanting slogans. 

However, it was not the Awami League activists who barred them. Rather, there were more than a hundred police personnel stationed at the Dainik Bangla intersection to stop the BNP activists from approaching the venue of Awami League's rally. 

As soon as more than two people were walking together towards Baitul Mukarram, the police personnel were either rejecting their entry directly, or questioning their intention before allowing or disallowing them to proceed. 

Also, there were multiple platoons of police personnel stationed at Shantinagar intersection, Kakrail intersection, Fakirapool Police Box, Rajarbag, and in front of the first gate of Bangabandhu National Stadium.  

Digital divide 

Moving from Naya Paltan to Baitul Mukarram revealed a rather strange thing. 

In Naya Paltan or surrounding areas, people were not getting any internet signal on their phones. It became evident that the internet connection was indeed unavailable during the entirety of BNP's rally. 

However, crossing the Dainik Bangla intersection immediately restored internet connection. And there was no problem with the internet anywhere near the Awami League rally. 

BNP supporters complained that it was a plot from the government to spoil their effort to hold the rally properly, and that it was not really the first time something like this happened during the rally of an opposition party. 

BTRC Chairman Shyam Sunder Sikder, however, claimed that they had not received any complaints, and added that a technical issue might have caused the network interruption.