The BNP Dhaka South City unit's march program in the capital, scheduled to be held Thursday, has been postponed out of solidarity with the victims of the catastrophic earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria earlier in the week.

“Our senior leaders had a meeting on Wednesday night and decided to postpone the march, expressing the party's profound shock and sympathy as a huge number of people were killed in the earthquake in Turkey and Syria,” BNP acting office secretary Sayed Imran Saleh Prince told UNB.

He said their party leaders thought it would not be decent to hold the march program on Thursday amid the news of deaths of thousands of people in tremor-hit Turkey and Syria. A fresh date for the march will be announced later.

Bangladesh will observe a day of state mourning on Thursday to commiserate the huge loss of lives in an earthquake in Turkey and Syria recently.

Leaders and activists of BNP's Dhaka South City unit were supposed to march towards the Jatiya Press Club (JPC) from Gopibagh in the capital at 2pm on Thursday, to press home the 10-point demand that is the centrepiece of their movement, topped by a non-party caretaker government under whom the next JS election would be held.

On Tuesday, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced the second phase of their party's march program in the capital.

The party's Dhaka North City unit is also scheduled to march towards Bosila Saat Rasta intersection from Shyamoli playground at 2pm on February 12.

Earlier, leaders and activists of the party's Dhaka north and south city units observed the march program on January 28, 31, 30 and February 1, respectively, to push for their 10-point demand.

With hope of finding survivors fading, stretched rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched Wednesday for signs of life in the rubble of thousands of buildings toppled by the world's deadliest earthquake in more than a decade. The confirmed death toll approached 12,000, reported AP.