Tens of thousands of supporters of Bangladesh’s main opposition party took to the streets of the capital on Saturday defying fears of being arrested ahead of the country’s national election early next year. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), whose top leadership is either jailed or in exile, has demanded that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina step down and make way for a neutral government to oversee the Jan. 7 poll, which the opposition party has boycotted. Many leaders and activists of BNP who are in hiding since Oct. 28, the day a police officer was killed and hundreds were injured during an anti-government protest, joined the Victory Day rally. Some supporters and activists gathered in front of the padlocked headquarters entrance in Dhaka.