Sylhet City wore a festive look with posters, banners and billboards and colourful processions on Friday as the BNP started taking over the city for what is going to be its first rally here in nearly a decade on Saturday.

As part of its programme of divisional rallies that started in Chattogram last month, the BNP is all set to stage yet another huge showdown through the rally - the seventh in the series - at the Sylhet Govt Alia Madrasa field.

Through holding their first six rallies to resounding success, the main opposition party has grown in confidence and gone from strength to strength.

It has serially defied the obstacles erected in its path to prevent that success. This time, they will be defying a 36-hour bus strike in Sunamganj, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts from Friday morning and a 12-hour strike in Sylhet district from Saturday morning.

Having failed to put any dent on the huge gathering of BNP supporters on at least 5 previous occasions, the latest in Faridpur last Saturday (Nov. 12), such transport bans hardly seem to bother the BNP and its supporters anymore.

Party leaders and activists have erected a stage in Alia Madrasa field where the rally is scheduled to begin at 2pm. Local leaders said the rally may begin before the scheduled time like previous other rallies in different divisions.

The party held its last rally in Sylhet on October 5, 2013 in presence of party chairperson Khaleda Zia at the same venue.

Thousands of leaders and activists of BNP and its associate bodies from four districts—Sunamganj, Moulvibazar and Habiganj and Sylhet—under the division have already reached the city in advance to join the rally.

Though bus communication remained halted between Sylhet and other parts of the country since Friday morning, BNP activists from all the districts under the division were seen coming to the rally venue by train, trucks, launches and boats and small vehicles like human haulers, auto rickshaws, three-wheelers, motorbikes, and micro-buses from Thursday itself.

The entire city has turned into a sea of BNP supporters since Friday afternoon as the party leaders and workers were coming to the rally venue from different areas.

BNP leaders and activists from Sunamganj district came to Sylhet city in a long procession of 8,000 motorbikes in the evening.

The rally venue was already overflowing with supporters since Friday morning as BNP leaders and activists arrived there and cooked their lunch. The organisers have arranged food and accommodation for them.

Talking to UNB, BNP Standing Committee member Dr Abdu Moyeen Khan, who is supervising the rally preparatory activities, said their leaders and activists were coming to Sylhet to join the rally from Tuesday to avert possible obstacles and challenges caused by the bus strikes.

“A huge number of people gathered at the rally venue over the last three days and they have been staying there under the open sky. It’s an unprecedented mass uprising. People are coming to our rally spontaneously,” he said.

Dr Moyeen said many common people are coming to join their rally as they are fed up with the country’s current situation and the price hikes in daily essentials: “They also want democracy to be restored in the country. Our rally will turn into a human sea on Saturday. It will be a historic rally.”

Abdul Kaium, president of Sylhet district unit BNP, alleged that the transport organizations called the strikes under pressure from the government.

“No conspiracy will be able to halt the mass gathering of the party men,” Kaium claimed.

The Sylhet division has been virtually isolated from the rest of the country due to the transport strikes in Sunamganj, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts and the undeclared strike in the Sylhet district.

Although the bus strike for Sylhet district is scheduled to begin Saturday morning, no long-distance buses left Sylhet city since Friday morning, causing immense suffering to commuters.

Passengers who planned their travels for Friday were seen waiting for public transport in Sylhet and three other districts.

However, the movement of three-wheelers and rented microbuses remained normal.

The rally in Sylhet on Saturday will be the 7th one by the BNP at the divisional level following Chattogram, Mymensingh, Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal and Faridpur.

A similar strike was also enforced ahead of BNP’s divisional rallies in Mymensingh, Barishal, Rangpur, Khulna, and Faridpur, but thousands of party leaders, activists and supporters participated in the rallies overcoming the obstacles.

As part of the move to continue the pace of its ongoing movement, the BNP on September 27 announced a series of public rallies in 10 divisional cities.

The organisers said the rallies are meant to denounce the price hike of daily essentials and fuels, the death of five party men in previous police action in Bhola, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, and Jashore, and to ensure the freedom of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

The BNP has long been demanding that the next general election be held under a caretaker government, not under any political government--a demand sharply rejected by the ruling Awami League as the constitution does not allow it to happen.