The police department last night imposed a ban on four-party alliance's human chain programme, set for today, saying the programme will violate the Emergency Power Rules, 2007.
The BNP-led alliance scheduled the countrywide programme demanding immediate release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son Tarique Rahman.
According to alliance sources, the protest programme is to start at 5:00pm and continue for an hour. Leaders of the alliance would sit together in the morning to finalise their strategies for the demonstration.
In the capital, alliance leaders are supposed to form human chains at 12 places between Jatrabari and Gabtoli. Senior leaders of the alliance are expected to join the programme at different places in the capital like Jatiya Press Club, Bangla Motor, Motijheel and Dainik Bangla, Shahbagh, Farmgate and Asad Gate intersections.
The police asked the alliance not to hold its countrywide human chain programme saying holding of such programmes "without prior permission would be a violation of the Emergency Power Rules, 2007", UNB adds.
The Police Headquarters in a press statement late last night said all have been asked to stay away from the protest programme and show respect to the laws of the land.
"Legal action would be taken against the violators," the statement said.
On Sunday, over 50 former BNP lawmakers of both "reformist" and pro-Khaleda factions met at former lawmaker Selim Reza Habib's Nam flat and discussed the human chain programme.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police had banned a march towards the Chief Adviser's Office on August 21 on the same demand.