BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman returns to Bangladesh after 17 years

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman returned to Bangladesh on Thursday (December 25) from London along with his wife and daughter after spending 17 years in self-exile in London.

He arrived in Dhaka on board a flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, which landed at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport via Sylhet in Dhaka around 11:41 am, reported the Daily Star.

The report further stated that the flight made a stopover at Sylhet's Osmani International Airport around 9:58 am.

Rahman has returned to Bangladesh with his wife and two close aids Abdur Rahman Suny and Kamal Uddin. Their family pet cat Zeebu has also travelled with them.

Received by BNP leaders

Rahman was received by the BNP Standing Committee members at the airport. From there, he will travel in one of the two imported bulletproof vehicles in the 300 Feet area of Purbachal, chosen over Suhrawardy Udyan and Manik Mia Avenue to minimise inconvenience to commuters in Dhaka. BNP leaders and cadres will line up on both sides of the road to welcome him.

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Although senior BNP leader and party standing committee members will be on the dais, only Rahman will address the gathering.

Will meet Khaleda Zia

After the public address, he will head for the Evercare Hospital to visit his mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, who has been undergoing treatment at the hospital for over a month.

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Following his meeting with his mother, Rahman will go to Firoza, the Zia family's residence at Gulshan‑2, via Airport Road and Kakoli Mor. Heavy security arrangement has been made by the Dhaka Metropolitan Police to avoid any untoward incident.

The BNP leadership is expecting that around 50 lakh people will gather in Dhaka during the day.

Arrest and exile

Tarique Rahman was arrested on March 7, 2007. He was granted bail on September 3, 2008, and left for London with his family on September 11 that year for medical treatment.

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Since then, Tarique had been living in London with his wife, Zubaida Rahman, and their daughter, Zaima Rahman. Zubaida Rahman returned to London on December 20 after a two-week stay in Dhaka, where she had been attending to her ailing mother-in-law.

During the tenure of the Awami League government, Tarique was convicted in absentia in five cases and faced around 100 lawsuits. Following the fall of the Awami League government, all charges against him were withdrawn, and there are currently no cases pending against him.

Early life and political career

Tarique began his political career at a young age. In 1988, at the age of 22, he became a member of the Gabtali upazila unit of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in Bogura district, although he had been involved in politics even before formally joining the party.

He actively took part in the nationwide election campaign alongside his mother during the 1991 general election. In 2002, he was appointed senior joint secretary general of the BNP.

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While in exile in London, Tarique lost his younger brother, Arafat Rahman Koko. During his years abroad, he was elected senior vice-chairman of the party at the BNP’s Fifth National Council in 2009 and was re-elected to the same post at the Sixth National Council in 2016.

Following the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018, Tarique has been serving as the acting chairman of the BNP.