The Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance has called on the government to extend "administrative cooperation" for Saturday's Dhaka-Chattogram long march.
Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Porwar made the appeal at a Friday briefing, following a closed-door meeting of bloc leaders at Jamaat's Moghbazar headquarters to lock down final preparations.
The Opposition, he said, had played a “disciplined, constructive” role both inside parliament and out since the February election, working to ease public hardship.
“Our request to the government is to provide all administrative support to make the Opposition’s largest peaceful political programme a success and retain public confidence.”
Fresh out of the meeting, Porwar, who also chairs the march's implementation committee, offered a blunt warning to anyone weighing obstruction.
Any party or individual moving to disrupt the march would only bleed public trust and invite a backlash of its own making, he said.
"No one from the government or ruling party will take such a reckless path," he added.
The march is shaping up as a show of force behind a long list of grievances: implementation of the referendum verdict, justice for the July massacre, an end to the power, oil, gas and fertiliser crunch, a crackdown on the extortion and graft fuelling price hikes, better law and order, and a halt to what the alliance calls “narrow partisanship” in state affairs.
According to the veteran leader, every logistical piece is already in place, with roughly 1,500 vehicles set to swell the convoy as it winds from Dhaka to Chattogram.
That figure marks a sharp climbdown from what National Citizen Party's Nasiruddin Patwary floated a day earlier.
On Thursday, Patwary said the original plan for 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles was scaled back to around 1,000, citing fuel shortages and a wish to spare ordinary commuters further grief.
The march sets off from Motijheel's Shapla Chattar at 7am Saturday, Friday's briefing confirmed.
From there, the convoy will pause for roadside rallies at a string of predetermined points, starting near a truck stand by Kanchpur Bridge in Narayanganj, then Cumilla's Paduar Bazar, Bishwa Road; Feni's Mohipal and Chattogram's Mirsharai, before wrapping up with a mass meeting at Laldighi Maidan.
Porwar framed the march as a “litmus test” for Bangladesh’s post-transition politics, one he hopes will show that both Opposition and ruling camps have moved past the old culture of political violence towards something more tolerant.
"We are not apprehending any sabotage so far. There is no reason for loss of life or property in a safe, peaceful long march," he said.
The Chattogram leg is only the opening act.
Alliance chief and Jamaat Ameer Shafiqur Rahman laid out the broader roadmap on Aug 6, announcing from a sit-in at Dhaka's Muktangan a series of long marches and mass rallies fanning out from the capital to four divisional cities between September and November.
Next up: Rangpur on Sept 19, Khulna on Oct 10, and a rail journey to Sylhet on Oct 24, before the campaign culminates in a mass rally back in Dhaka on Nov 14.
