After 17 years in exile, Tarique Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and frontrunner to be the South Asian nation’s next prime minister, returned to Dhaka on Thursday to a rousing welcome by thousands of his party’s supporters.
Rahman, long seen as a prince of Bangladeshi politics, got down at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, alongside his wife Zubaida and daughter Zaima, and stood barefoot on Bangladeshi soil amid heavy security.
Rahman’s symbolic gestures marking his return to Bangladesh come at a crucial juncture in the country’s politics, and represent a major shot in the arm to the BNP cadre and leaders. An interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has been in power since August 2024, following the ouster of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a student-led uprising. The Yunus administration has announced elections on February 12, after which it is to peacefully transfer power to an elected government.
Rahman’s mother, the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has been hospitalised in a critical condition since November 23. As the de facto leader of the BNP, Bangladesh’s largest political party, Rahman might be holding the nation’s reins soon.
PT/ra
