The Awami League will not be allowed to hold rallies anywhere in the country if they prevent BNP gatherings, the party's Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi has said.

He spoke at a press briefing on Sunday in response to a statement made by Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbub-Ul-Alam Hanif.

"Mr Hanif said the BNP would not be allowed to hold rallies anywhere in the country if the party's Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman did not withdraw his remarks.

"We want to make it clear if the Awami League thwarts BNP rallies, they will not be able to hold rallies peacefully anywhere in the country either. The combined power of the people will prevent that," he said at the party's Naya Paltan office.

Section 144 was implemented at Bhawal Badre Alam Government College and the areas around in Gazipur, where a BNP rally was supposed to be held, after a simultaneous public meeting was announced by the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the student affiliate of the party.

The imposed ban on all gatherings foiled the rally of the BNP-led 20-Party Alliance. They observed a shutdown in the district in protest on Saturday.

Awami League leader Hanif said later in the evening that it was time to think whether BNP chief Khaleda Zia would be allowed to hold rallies in future if she did not apologise for derogatory comments and distortion of history.

In the briefing Rizvi was critical of the arrest of Jatiyatabadi Juba Dal chief Moazzem Hossain Alal.

"The government claims they are not afraid of anything. It brags of how much relief it is in. Why all the countrywide arrests then?" he said

Alal was picked up from his Lalmatia house in Dhaka's Lalmatia on Saturday night.