BNP sources says Tarique Rahman may return home by August
PARBATTA NEWS DESK
Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), may return to the country by the end of August, party sources say.
No official date has been confirmed, but BNP leaders say preparations are underway both within the party and at the national level.
According to a report published in a leading national daily, Rahman is expected to stay at House No. 196 in Dhaka’s Gulshan-2 area — a property allocated to his mother, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, following the assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in 1981. The house, previously leased to British American Tobacco Bangladesh, was vacated earlier this year. Renovation work is currently ongoing, party sources told the newspaper.
Rahman has lived in London since 2008. He left the country after being released on bail during the military-backed caretaker government and later sought political asylum in the United Kingdom.
He was appointed acting chairman of the BNP in 2018, following Khaleda Zia’s imprisonment on corruption charges.
His possible return comes nearly a year after the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024, following mass protests. The interim government has since dropped most legal charges against him.
Lt Gen (Retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, the interim government’s adviser on home affairs, has said there are no legal barriers to Rahman’s return.
Speculation about his homecoming has grown in recent weeks. On 10 June, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters: “Tarique Rahman will certainly return,” though no date was given.
BNP Joint Secretary General Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie has also said that preparations are underway.
Supporters see his return as a long-awaited moment of party consolidation, often referring to a popular slogan: “Tarique Rahman will return to Bangladesh in heroic form.”
Analysts suggest his return could signal a new phase in national politics — either as part of electoral mobilisation or as a strategic move to influence the country’s political landscape.
