Tareq Rahaman returning to Bangladesh on December 25, new twist to pre-election politics in the country

By Our Correspondent

Agartala, December 15, 2025

In a new twist to the pre-election politics in embattled Bangladesh, the BNP’s supreme leader and likely next prime minister Tareq Rahaman, son of the country’s former assassinated president and dictator Ziaur Rahaman and ailing chair-person of the party and former two-time prime minister (1991-1996, 2001-2006) Begum Khaleda Zia, is returning to the country on December 25 after his seventeen years of forced exile in London. The news about the likely return of Tareq Rahaman has stirred the entire Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), major opposition over the past sixteen years and successor to the incumbent interim regime. Sources from across the border said that the entire BNP is now fully geared up to accord a massive reception to Tareq Rahaman who is expected to spearhead the BNP’s countrywide campaign for the election and ensure its success .

Tareq Rahaman had been the key man behind his ailing mother and former prime minister Begum Zia , specially during her second stint in 2001-2006 . He had been accused of being the proxy prime minister behind his mother and allegedly committed lot of excesses. It was also alleged that he had plotted the assassination of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina . then in opposition, in a rally in 2008. However, a number of people had died in the explosion in the meeting though Sheikh Hasina had narrowly escaped . Apart from massive bribe taking Tareq was also alleged to have established an unholy link with the Karachi based Indian gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

All his crimes had come to haunt him once the BNP lost power in 2008 December election as Tareq was implicated in a number of cases including largescale financial corruption and sponsored murder. But before police under the Hasina regime could take any action Tareq had fled the country and taken shelter in London. Sources said that BNP and Tareq must have reached an understanding with the Yunus regime to pave the way for his return to the country after sixteen months of interim government’s rule . His arrival is however expected to be a moral booster for his party, the BNP.

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