After 17 years in exile, Tariq Rahman, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and front-runner to become South Asia’s next prime minister, returned to Dhaka on Thursday to a warm welcome from thousands of party supporters.
Rahman, long considered the prince of Bangladeshi politics, landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport with his wife Zubaydah and daughter Zaima, and stood barefoot on Bangladeshi soil amid tight security.
Mr Rahman’s symbolic move to mark his return to Bangladesh comes at a critical juncture in the country’s politics and is a major blow to BNP executives and leaders. An interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus has been in power since August 2024 after then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in student-led riots. The Yunus government is expected to announce elections on February 12, followed by a peaceful transfer of power to an elected government.
Rahman’s mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has been hospitalized in critical condition since November 23. As the de facto leader of Bangladesh’s largest political party, the BNP, Rahman may soon take the reins of the country.
So here’s everything you need to know about him, his life in exile, and the significance of his return to the South Asian country.
Who is Rahman?
Rahman, 60, is the eldest son of former Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman and Khaleda Zia, who became the country’s first female prime minister in 1991.
Mr Rahman has lived in London since 2008 and has led the BNP as acting speaker since 2018, when his ailing mother Zia was jailed under the rule of political rival and then-prime minister Hasina.
He became a major celebrity during his mother’s second term in government, from 2001 to 2006, but also attracted allegations of nepotism, corruption and political violence. The military-backed interim government, which was in power from 2006 to early 2009, investigated these allegations.
In March 2007, he was arrested by military troops who dramatically stopped outside a luxury residence in Dhaka late at night. A few months later he was released on bail and flew to the UK for treatment, but did not return until Thursday.
Rahman and the BNP have consistently said the charges against him are politically motivated, but his reputation for corruption extends beyond his political opponents. Mr. Luhrmann’s name appeared in leaked diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in 2011, in which U.S. diplomat James F. Moriarty described him as a symbol of “kleptocracy and the politics of violence.”
“In short, many of the problems in Bangladesh can be blamed on Mr. Tariq and his cronies,” the American embassy in Dhaka advised against his entry into the United States.
He was later convicted by the Awami League government on charges of money laundering, fraud and political violence, including a grenade attack on rival Hasina’s rally in 2004 that killed at least 20 people.
However, since the August 2024 uprising against Hasina, most of the charges and convictions against Rahman have been stayed or overturned, facilitating his return to Dhaka.
“Just like in 1971, people from all walks of life came together to protect this country’s independence and sovereignty in 2024,” Rahman said Thursday, addressing supporters at a rally in Dhaka, referring to the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan and the ouster of Hasina last year.
“The time has come for all of us to build a country together. We want to build a safe Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, every woman, man and child should be able to leave their homes safely and return safely,” he said, calling for an inclusive Bangladesh.
Why did Rahman defect?
Since 1991, Khaleda and Hasina, the two female leaders of rival political dynasties, have taken turns in power for more than 30 years, with the exception of a few interim heads.
Hasina, who led the Awami League, entered politics after her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding president of Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of her family in a military coup in August 1975. Khaleda rose to power after the assassination of her husband, Ziaur Rahman, a former army chief who became president and was killed in a coup attempt in May 1981.
The two parties remained political enemies for decades, except for a brief period in the late 1980s when they joined forces to wrest power back from military leader General Hussein Mohammad Ershad.
When Hasina returned to power in Dhaka in 2009 after eight years in opposition, Zia’s BNP found itself on the wrong side of repression during Hasina’s long and uninterrupted rule.
Rahman flew to Britain in September 2008 after being released on bail after nearly 18 months in detention during the 2007-2008 emergency rule, while several BNP leaders and activists faced abuse, imprisonment and trials.
What is the significance of Rahman’s return?
After years at the helm in Dhaka, Hasina faced a student-led popular uprising last year. The protests began as a campaign against the government’s controversial affirmative action policy for jobs, but escalated into widespread demands for an end to her rule amid a brutal crackdown by security forces. The United Nations announced that up to 1,400 people were killed.
Meanwhile, anger grew over her 15 years of iron-fisted leadership, during which thousands of political opponents and critics were arrested, murdered, tortured and forcibly disappeared. Hasina won landslide victories in 2014, 2018 and 2024 in elections widely seen as unfair.
Eventually, protesters occupied her residence after she fled Bangladesh to India by helicopter on August 5, 2024.
Last month, Hasina was found guilty by a court of crimes against humanity for ordering a deadly crackdown on student-led riots and sentenced to death by hanging. Her party, the Awami League, has been banned from participating in February’s elections.
Meanwhile, interim leader Yunus met with Rahman during his visit to London in June.
Rahman also returned while his mother Khaleda was hospitalized. Some analysts believe that the BNP is now trying to claim the political space vacated by the Awami League ban with a secular, liberal and centrist stance. They cite the BNP’s recent break with Jamaat-e-Islam, the country’s largest Islamist force and a longtime ally of the Rahman Party.
John Danilowicz, a former U.S. diplomat who served in Bangladesh for eight years, said Rahman’s return is “the last piece of the puzzle as far as Bangladesh’s election preparations are concerned.”
Danilovich told Al Jazeera that by leading the BNP campaign, “Rahman will have the opportunity to learn more about what has changed in this country over the past 17 years, and his fellow Bangladeshis will learn how he has changed during this period.”
How does the BNP position itself for the next election?
The BNP is seen as the frontrunner to win a majority in the next election, which would return the party to power for the first time in nearly 20 years.
A poll conducted in December by the International Republican Institute (IRI), a US-based non-profit organization, showed the BNP in the lead with 30% support, followed by Jamaat-e-Islami with 26%. Bangladesh has a first-come, first-served system for elections, so candidates do not need a majority to win in multiparty elections.
The National Civic Party (NCP), formed by a faction of student leaders after the uprising, has a weak organization and limited resources and has struggled to transform its street power into an electoral force. The party is far behind the BNP, with just 6% support, according to an IRI poll.
With Hasina’s Awami League banned from participating in elections, Rahman’s BNP appears poised for a favorable electoral environment for the post-Yunus era in Bangladesh.
Danilowitz, a former US diplomat, pointed out that the BNP will lose the upcoming elections. “Over the past 17 years, the party has shown great resilience. Party leaders have remained outside the government in the face of the full repressive power of the state,” he said.
Now, back home, Rahman is also facing the weight of his own political legacy. “The challenge is to integrate.” [Rahman’s] Throughout his exile, there was a small core of trusted lieutenants who stood by him, along with the extensive party machinery that his mother had assembled and remained in the country. ”
