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Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) acting president Tarique Rahman is scheduled to get successful Dhaka astir 12.00 p.m. noon connected Thursday, ending much than 17 years successful self-exile successful the UK. His instrumentality comes astatine a clip erstwhile the state has been marred by a bid of incidents of violence, weeks aft the announcement of parliamentary elections slated for February 12.
Rahman, the elder lad of erstwhile premier curate and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, is wide seen arsenic the party’s main look up of the polls, peculiarly arsenic Zia remains unwell. BNP leaders accidental Rahman volition implicit formalities to go a registered elector connected December 27, a measurement that would alteration him to play a nonstop relation successful electoral politics. According to BNP lasting committee subordinate Salahuddin Ahmed, elder enactment leaders volition person Rahman astatine the airdrome earlier helium proceeds to a reception venue connected the July Expressway, besides known arsenic the 300 Feet Road, wherever helium is expected to code the nation. He volition past sojourn Khaleda Zia astatine the infirmary and instrumentality to his residence successful Gulshan-2, Ahmed said. Details of Rahman’s archetypal 3 days backmost were outlined by Ahmed astatine a property league connected Wednesday, arsenic reported by Prothom Alo. On Friday, December 26, Rahman is slated to sojourn the sedate of BNP laminitis and erstwhile president Ziaur Rahman astatine Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, followed by a sojourn to the National Martyrs’ Monument successful Savar. On Saturday, December 27, helium is expected to implicit nationalist individuality paper procedures to go a voter, sojourn the sedate of martyred Osman Hadi astatine Dhaka University, and conscionable those injured successful the July wide uprising astatine the National Orthopaedic Hospital successful Shyamoli, Prothom Alo reported.
Rahman’s homecoming has been facilitated by the interim government. Earlier this month, overseas advisor Md Touhid Hossain said the authorities could contented a “one-time” question walk wrong a time if Rahman wished to return. Chief advisor Muhammad Yunus besides discussed Rahman’s instrumentality astatine a caller meeting, according to officials.
Who is Tarique Rahman
Tarique Rahman, 58, is the acting president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the elder lad of erstwhile premier curate Khaleda Zia.
He has lived successful self-exile successful London since 2008 aft leaving Bangladesh amid aggregate transgression convictions successful Bangladesh, including wealth laundering and charges linked to an alleged crippled to assassinate past premier curate Sheikh Hasina. Over the past year, Bangladesh’s higher courts person acquitted him successful each large cases, including the 2004 grenade onslaught and the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, clearing ineligible hurdles to his governmental return.
He is wide regarded arsenic the BNP’s de facto leader, Rahman has present announced plans to instrumentality and contention the February 2026 wide elections.
Khaleda Zia’s Tenure
Bangladesh for implicit the past 3 decades has changed powers betwixt hands of 2 - present ousted PM Sheikh Hasina and Rehman’s parent erstwhile PM Khaleda Zia. Zia was the archetypal pistillate Prime Minister of Bangladesh and was successful powerfulness from 1991-1995, and past again from 200-2006. Her tenure is inactive caller successful people’s memories, particularly the governmental factions which ousted Hasina connected the plank of corruption.
Her authorities besides saw atrocities and favoritism against minorities. In 2018, Zia was sentenced to a 5 twelvemonth word successful prison, connected the graft charges.
A caller governmental landscape
Bangladesh’s governmental bid has been reshaped pursuing the convulsive 2024 uprising that led to Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and the disbanding of her Awami League by the interim authorities led by Muhammad Yunus. With Hasina’s Awami League barred from elections, accepted alliances person fractured, including the long-standing BNP–Jamaat partnership.
The emergence of the student-led National Citizen Party (NCP), calved retired of the July protests and present registered with the Election Commission, has added further uncertainty to an already fluid electoral landscape.
Why the BNP is betting large connected Rahman
With Khaleda Zia, 80, battling wellness issues, the BNP sees Tarique Rahman arsenic the party’s astir viable person going into the archetypal predetermination successful astir 2 decades without the Awami League. His determination to contention signals an effort to consolidate enactment unity, reclaim the Zia family’s governmental legacy, and contiguous the BNP arsenic the default governing alternative.
Political observers presumption the BNP arsenic a frontrunner, and Rahman is being tipped arsenic a imaginable premier ministerial campaigner if the enactment secures a majority.
The India ties
India-Bangladesh relations person sharply deteriorated since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster and her governmental asylum India, wherever she continues to reside contempt apprehension warrants and extradition requests from Dhaka. The BNP has criticised New Delhi for sheltering Hasina, with Rahman saying India risks alienating the Bangladeshi nationalist by doing so.
A BNP instrumentality to powerfulness could further strain ties, fixed the party’s historically person relations with Pakistan, successful opposition to Hasina’s pro-India stance that included practice against insurgent and extremist networks.
Islamic radicals loom
As the BNP regains governmental prominence, it faces increasing challenges from rising mob unit and the resurgence of Islamist groups advocating stricter spiritual norms. Party leaders person warned against attempts to enforce Shariah instrumentality and curtail women’s freedoms, cautioning that extremist forces are seeking to regenerate wide antiauthoritarian politics. Recent attacks connected spiritual sites and governmental offices, on with survey information showing wide nationalist interest implicit mob violence, underscore the risks confronting the BNP arsenic it prepares for elections.The governmental stakes are high. Hasina’s Awami League has been barred from contesting the upcoming elections, leaving the BNP arsenic a frontrunner. The BNP-led confederation is acceptable to look a conjugation headed by Jamaat-e-Islami. Rahman and BNP person antecedently pressed the interim medication for aboriginal elections and, successful May, questioned Yunus’ mandate to instrumentality semipermanent overseas argumentation decisions, arguing that specified authorization rests with an elected government.
