BNP's acting chief Tarique Rahman set to return Bangladesh on Thursday

Dhaka, Dec 24 (PTI) Tarique Rahman, the Acting Chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and heir to the influential Zia family, is set to return home on Thursday, ending his nearly 17 years in exile in London, his party said on Wednesday.

Rahman, the 60-year-old son of ailing former premier Khaleda Zia, has emerged as a leading contender for prime minister in the upcoming February general elections.

"This will be a defining political moment,” BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said while referring to the return of Rahman, who is the elder son of Zia.

His father, Ziaur Rahman, was a military ruler turned politician who founded BNP and ran the country as the President from 1977 to 1981, when he was assassinated.

The interim government of Muhammad Yunus has ordered an intensified security presence coinciding with Rahman’s return, while the BNP aimed to gather millions of supporters to welcome him as a show of strength.

"We have taken both covert and overt security measures as part of our enhanced vigil over his return,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Detective Branch chief Nazrul Islam told reporters.

Bangladesh Civil Aviation Authority has said it would enforce a 24-hour restriction for visitors’ entry at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Wednesday evening to avoid crowd congestion.

Home Adviser Lt Gen (retd) Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury said that law enforcement agencies have been instructed to maintain maximum vigilance and adopt top-tier security measures.

Authorities are deploying a “double-layer” security cordon combining state and party measures across Dhaka ahead of Rahman’s arrival, Dhaka Tribune reported.

Rahman’s return comes as the BNP emerged as the forerunner in the changed political landscape after toppling of the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government in a student-led violent movement dubbed the July Uprising on August 5, 2024.

  The party's partner during its 2001-2006 tenure in power, Jamaat-e-Islami and its Islamist allies, now appeared as BNP’s main rival as the interim government disbanded Awami League under the country’s tough Anti-Terrorism Act through an executive order.

   BNP announced Rahman’s return on December 12, sparking speculations as in a Facebook post on November 29, Rahman said, “like any child,” he longs to be near his critically ill mother at her “moment of crisis”.

“But unlike others, to make a unilateral decision in this regard is not in my hands alone or solely within my control. The sensitivity of this matter also limits the scope for detailed explanation,” he said at that time.

  Rahman, however, wrote “once the current political realities reach the expected stage, my long and anxious wait to return to my homeland will finally come to an end”.

  BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir earlier said if elected to power, three-time prime minister Zia would be the premier again, provided her health permitted and otherwise Rahman would be the party nominee to be the next head of the government.

  Zia and Hasina alternated in power since 1991, apart from brief transition administrations.

  Rahman was detained by the 2007-2008 military-backed caretaker government, and he went to Britain for treatment after the interim regime released him and has been living in London since then.      But he faced multiple criminal convictions at home, including for money laundering and in a case related to a plot to assassinate Hasina.

He was, however, acquitted of all charges after Hasina’s removal.

  Rahman would be accompanied by his wife, Dr Zubaida Rahman, and daughter Zaima Rahman, according to the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.

He is expected to arrive at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport here on Thursday at 11:55 am local time.

According to the BNP-announced plan, Rahman would travel directly from the airport to the reception venue before visiting his mother.

Octogenarian BNP Chairperson Zia is being treated at the intensive care unit (ICU) of a private hospital in Dhaka with multiple health issues.

According to reports, party leaders and activists will line both sides of the road to greet Rahman. The BNP leader is expected to give a speech at the reception. Following the speech, he will visit his 80-year-old ailing mother at Evercare Hospital in Bashundhara.

He would also visit the National Institute of Traumatology and Orthopaedic Rehabilitation to meet those injured in the July 2024 uprising.

On Saturday, he will be formally registered as a voter and later visit the grave of Osman Hadi, the youth leader who was recently shot and killed, near the Dhaka University Central Mosque, it said. PTI AR/SKS ZH