Eleven-party alliance coordinator and Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general Hamidur Rahman Azad said a Dhaka-Chattogram long march will begin at 7am on September 5 with a gathering of more than 100,000 people at Shapla Chattar in the capital. He made the announcement after a preparatory meeting at the party’s central office in Moghbazar on Thursday.

The march is scheduled to travel through Madanpur in Narayanganj, Padua Bazar Bishwaroad in Cumilla and Mirsarai in Chattogram, where roadside meetings will be held before the programme concludes in Chattogram. Azad said local residents would welcome the procession at different points and join it after receptions at the relevant upazila level.

The meeting discussed organisational preparations, responsibilities and measures to make the programme successful. Azad described the march as part of a national series of programmes aimed at implementing the referendum verdict and building a discrimination-free Bangladesh. He alleged that the government seeks to erase the events of July and criticised the BNP. He also said farmers were not receiving fertiliser and that six of seven fertiliser factories were closed, while power shortages were disrupting industrial production.