Backlash if Dhaka-Ctg long march disturbed: Porwar

Eleven-Party Alliance Warns of Public Backlash if Dhaka–Chattogram March Faces Obstruction

Thebangladaily.com – The sprawling political march set to snake across Bangladesh’s highways this weekend carries an explicit warning: any attempt to derail it will be met with public fury. Mia Golam Porwar, Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and convener of the implementation committee behind the march, framed the stakes bluntly on Friday morning. Speaking to reporters after a final coordination session at Jamaat’s central office in Moghbazar, Dhaka, he cautioned that government loyalists or any other actors who manufacture trouble along the route would forfeit popular trust and invite widespread anger.

“If any group or anyone from the government creates an adverse situation during the long march, they will lose public confidence and face public anger,” Porwar stated.

He urged the ruling establishment and its political base to steer clear of what he called an “unwise” course of action, expressing hope that no such confrontation would materialise. The briefing, held at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Friday, served as the last logistical check before the march departs.

What the March Demands

The Dhaka-to-Chattogram march, scheduled for Saturday, September 5, is not a routine opposition protest. It is the culmination of a sustained campaign by the 11-party alliance to force implementation of a national referendum verdict, demand judicial accountability for the July mass killings, and press for concrete relief on a catalogue of economic grievances. The alliance’s six-point agenda encompasses resolution of persistent shortages in electricity, fuel, cooking gas, and agricultural fertiliser; tighter control over prices of essential commodities; a decisive crackdown on extortion and entrenched corruption; restoration of law and order; and an end to what the alliance describes as excessive partisanisation of state institutions.

Porwar stressed that the march is not an attempt to topple the government. Six months into its tenure, he alleged, the administration has taken no meaningful steps toward implementing the referendum verdict and has, in fact, moved in the opposite direction. The opposition’s position, he clarified, is that the government must accept the referendum outcome and honour the alliance’s six-point framework.

“We are not carrying out any movement to oust the government,” he said, adding that their demand was for the government to accept the referendum verdict and the alliance’s six-point demands.

Logistics and Route

Porwar reported that the alliance had submitted written notification to the Inspector General of Police detailing the programme’s scope and itinerary. Approximately 1,500 vehicles are expected to participate, making the march one of the larger organised political processions in recent years. He noted that no credible signs of planned sabotage had surfaced, and the alliance anticipated a peaceful traversal of the route.

The march will kick off with an inaugural rally at Shapla Chattar in Motijheel, Dhaka, at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday. From there, the convoy will proceed southward along the Dhaka–Chattogram corridor, pausing at predetermined roadside rally points. These include the truck stand near Kanchpur Bridge in Narayanganj district, Paduar Bazar on the Bishwaroad in Cumilla, and the towns of Mohipal and Mirsarai. The programme will culminate in a public rally at Laldighi Maidan in Chattogram, where organisers expect the largest single-day gathering of the event.

Call for Mass Participation

In Chattogram on Friday, Jamaat Central Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Shahjahan addressed a rally at Probortak Mor, urging supporters to transform the concluding Laldighi Maidan gathering into a massive demonstration of popular will. He emphasised disciplined, peaceful participation throughout the march and framed the exercise as a necessary act of united political action to realise what he termed the people’s legitimate demands.

Political Context and Implications

Long marches have long served as a signature tool of Bangladesh’s opposition politics, stretching back decades and often used to project numerical strength while keeping pressure on the government without the legal complications of a full-scale hartal or sit-in. The current march is notable for its multi-party character: eleven organisations, spanning ideological and regional lines, have converged on a shared platform centred on the referendum verdict and economic relief. That breadth gives the event a legitimacy claim beyond any single party’s base.

The timing also matters. With the government now six months into its term, the opposition argues the window for implementing the referendum’s mandates is closing. Failure to act, Porwar’s framing suggests, will convert a political disagreement into a broader public crisis. The government, for its part, has not publicly detailed a counter-strategy, though the alliance’s written notification to the police hierarchy implies that security arrangements are being coordinated at the operational level.

For ordinary commuters along the Dhaka–Chattogram corridor, the march will mean temporary disruptions to highway traffic, particularly at the Narayanganj and Cumilla rally points where trucking and freight movement are already dense. Local authorities in those districts have been alerted through the police notification process. The question that will define the weekend’s political aftermath is simple: whether the march proceeds without incident, or whether the very friction Porwar warned against becomes the story of September 5.