The Dhaka Metropolitan Police on Saturday said that the sit-in programmes of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party at the Dhaka entry points were illegal as they were now given permission to hold the programmes.

The metropolitan police’s deputy commissioner (media) Faruk Hossain in a text message to reporters also said that 90 opposition leaders and activists were arrested at different places of the city during the sit-in programmes.

The DMP official informed this a day after the metropolitan police’s Friday night announcement that neither the BNP nor the Awami League’s associate organisations was not given permission to hold their sit-in programmes at Dhaka entry points.

BNP called the sit-ins from their grand rally at Naya Paltan in Dhaka Friday afternoon and the ruling Awami League and its associate organisations, a couple of hours after BNP announcement, called ‘peace rally’ at all the city entry points. The AL, later at late night, informed the media that they had withdrawn their Saturday programmes due to ‘requests from the police’.

The BNP’s sit-in programmes between 11:00am and 4:00pm on Saturday ended amid attacks and arrests.

DMP DC Faruk said that 20 police personnel were injured and 30 vehicles including 10 of police were vandalised during the sit-in programmes at different places in the capital.