Rahman’s career has also been marked by controversy. A 2006 US embassy cable described him as the BNP’s “heir apparent” who “inspires few but unnerves many.”
Dhaka: Tarique Rahman, the heir to one of Bangladesh’s most influential political families and a key leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is set to return to the country after 17 years in exile, ahead of crucial national elections.
Rahman, 60, who has lived in London since 2008, is due to arrive in Dhaka on December 25, marking a major moment in Bangladesh’s post-uprising political landscape. Acting chairman of the BNP, he is widely expected to take over leadership responsibilities from his mother, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, 80, whose health has sharply deteriorated.
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BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Rahman would “arrive among us on the soil of Dhaka”, describing the day as a “fantastic day.”
A return timed with elections
Rahman’s homecoming comes ahead of the February 12, 2026 general elections, the first since a mass uprising last year ended the 15-year rule of Sheikh Hasina, the BNP’s long-time rival.
Despite years of ill health and imprisonment, Khaleda Zia had vowed in November to campaign in the elections. However, she was hospitalised shortly after and has remained in intensive care since.
Since Hasina’s fall from power, Rahman has been acquitted of the most serious charge against him — a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a rally addressed by Hasina, an accusation he consistently denied.
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Groomed for leadership
Often pictured beside his mother on BNP banners, Rahman has long been seen as the party’s future leader. In June, he met in London with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year-old head of Bangladesh’s interim government until the elections.
Known locally as Tarique Zia, his political identity is deeply tied to Bangladesh’s turbulent history. Born in 1967, when the country was still East Pakistan, he was briefly detained as a child during the 1971 independence war, a period the BNP highlights by calling him “one of the youngest prisoners of war.”
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His father, Ziaur Rahman, was an army commander who rose to power after the 1975 coup that killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of Bangladesh and Sheikh Hasina’s father. The rivalry between the Zia and Hasina families later became known as the “Battle of the Begums.”
Ziaur Rahman was assassinated when Tarique was just 15. Raised in his mother’s political shadow, Rahman later joined the BNP at 23, participating in protests against military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad.
Controversies and exile
Rahman’s career has also been marked by controversy. A 2006 US embassy cable described him as the BNP’s “heir apparent” who “inspires few but unnerves many.” Other cables labelled him a “symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics” and accused him of being “phenomenally corrupt” — allegations Rahman dismissed as politically motivated.
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He was arrested on corruption charges in 2007 and claimed he was tortured in custody. Reports later suggested his release was conditional on his withdrawal from politics. Freed that year, he left for London in 2008 for medical treatment and did not return.
After Hasina’s return to power in 2008, her government jailed tens of thousands of BNP members. In 2018, Rahman was again sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment for allegedly orchestrating the 2004 grenade attack — a case the BNP said was intended to eliminate the Zia dynasty from politics.
During his years in Britain, Rahman maintained a low profile, living with his wife, a cardiologist, and their daughter. Since Hasina’s ouster, however, he has emerged as a vocal presence on social media and a rallying point for BNP supporters. (AFP)
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