Tarique Rahman, acting BNP chairman, returns to Bangladesh after 17 years in London exile, following the fall of rival Sheikh Hasina’s government.
DHAKA: The heir to Bangladesh’s longtime ruling family, Tarique Rahman, is set to return home after 17 years in exile ahead of key elections.
Rahman, the 60-year-old acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is due to arrive in Dhaka on Thursday.
He has lived in London since fleeing Bangladesh in 2008 over what he called politically motivated persecution.
He is expected to take the reins from his ailing mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who has been hospitalised in intensive care.
The February 2026 elections will be the first since a mass uprising ended the 15-year rule of his political rival, Sheikh Hasina.
Since Hasina’s fall from power, Rahman has been acquitted of a life sentence for a 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina rally.
BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir promised Rahman will “arrive among us on the soil of Dhaka” on December 25.
Rahman’s return marks a pivotal moment in the nation’s violent political history, defined by the rivalry between the Zia and Hasina families.
His father, Ziaur Rahman, gained influence after the 1975 coup that saw Sheikh Hasina’s father murdered.
Tarique Rahman’s career has been dogged by allegations of nepotism and mismanagement.
A 2006 US embassy cable described him as a figure who “inspires few but unnerves many”.
He was arrested on corruption charges in 2007 and claimed he was tortured in custody before leaving for London.
In Britain, he kept a low profile but has recently emerged as an outspoken figure on social media for BNP supporters.