The ‘crown prince’ of Bangladeshi politics will head home this week after an 18-year exile from the country. Tarique Rahman had fled the country in 2008 amid mounting legal woes under the previous Awami League government. The son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia currently acts as chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party — leading BNP remotely over the past decade.
According to a Prothom Alo report, Rehman has applied for a travel pass with the Bangladesh High Commission in London. He is planning to return home on December 25 — some 50 days before the general elections. The BNP had boycotted the January 2024 elections that saw Sheikh Hasina secure a fourth term with minimal resistance. The party levelled allegations of voter fraud and refused to accept the results as legitimate — with a significant number of its leaders arrested ahead of the contest.
Changed political landscape
The return of Rehman also reinforces the drastically altered political terrain following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina. The Awami League Party is banned from contesting the February polls, and its chief has been sentenced to death for ‘crimes against humanity’. BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia was freed from prison mere hours after Sheikh Hasina fled the country — with the party now poised to become a winning electoral machine. The legal barriers that kept him away from Bangladesh (including multiple convictions during the Awami League era) have also crumbled. Rehman was acquitted in several high-profile cases over the past year.
Chaos in Bangladesh
The acting BNP chairperson will return this week amid a spiral of violence across the country. Protests have broken out across Bangladesh following the murder of prominent youth activist and Inqilab Moncho spokesperson Sharif Osman Hadi. The Dhaka Police have filed a case against Chhatra League leader Faisal Karim Masud and several others and investigation remains underway.
Separate protests have also broken out over the lynching of a Hindu youth in the Mymensingh area of Bangladesh last week. garment worker Dipu Chandra Das was lynched by a mob over blasphemy allegations and then set ablaze. His death as also triggered outrage in neighbouring India — with protests staged outside the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi
