Jamaat, Islamic parties absent from 18-party rally

Islamic parties including Jamaat-e-Islami did not join the BNP-led 18-party alliance rally at Suhrawardy Udyan in the capital today.

Jamaat and three other Islamic parties -- Bangladesh Khelafat Majlish, Jomiyate e Ulamaye Islam and Islami Okya Jote – are partners in the alliance.

Usually the activists of Jamaat and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, dominate the opposition's rallies but this time, there were no Jamaat-Shibir men in the rally, reports our correspondent covering the event.

Jamaat might have skipped the rally as BNP is trying to maintain distance with the party widely blamed for the recent violence across the country, Hamadullah Al Mehedi, secretary general of Bangladesh Labour Party which is a component of the combine, told The Daily Star.

Except Jamaat, leaders of other parties, including BNP addressed the rally.

The opposition alliance held the rally to "thank people for boycotting" the January 5 polls.

The rally is a part of the opposition alliance's series of "peaceful" programmes that Khaleda announced on January 15.

This was the second public address of Khaleda since October 25 last year, when she issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to realise the opposition demand for holding the election under a nonparty caretaker government.