Bangladesh’s Tarique Rahman to participate in polls

Bangladeshi heavyweight politician Tarique Rahman mentioned Monday (October 6, 2025) he would return “soon” after 17 years in self-imposed exile to contest the primary elections since a 2024 mass rebellion.

Rahman, 59, inheritor to Bangladesh’s longtime ruling household as son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is the performing chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), extensively seen as a key frontrunner within the upcoming polls.

“For some reasonable reasons my return hasn’t happened… but the time has come, and I will return soon, God willing,” Rahman instructed BBC Bangla in an interview broadcast Monday (October 6).

The elections, due in February 2026, would be the first since a mass rebellion ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina final yr, ending her 15-year hardline rule — throughout which she crushed the BNP.

Mr. Rahman, identified in Bangladesh as Tarique Zia, has lived in London since 2008, saying he fled politically-motivated persecution.

Since Ms. Hasina’s fall, Mr. Rahman has been acquitted of essentially the most critical cost in opposition to him; a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade assault on a Hasina rally, which he at all times denied.

Mr. Rahman has emerged as an outspoken determine on social media and a rallying level for BNP supporters.

“I am running in the election,” he instructed the BBC, talking from London.

Regarding the opportunity of assuming workplace as prime Minister if the BNP kinds the federal government, he mentioned: “The people will decide.”

It is unclear if his mom, 80-year-old Khaleda Zia, who has suffered ailing well being after being jailed throughout Hasina’s tenure, will run once more herself or play a guiding position behind her son.

“She went to jail in good health and returned with ailments, she was deprived of her right to proper treatment,” he mentioned.

“But… if her health permits, she will definitely contribute to the election.”

He additionally spoke on the ban on Hasina’s Awami League ordered by the interim authorities of Muhammad Yunus, who will step down after the elections.

Hasina, 78, has defied courtroom orders to return from India, the place she fled final yr, to attend her trial for ordering a lethal crackdown in opposition to the rebellion.

Hasina has refused to recognise the courtroom’s authority.

The prices quantity to crimes in opposition to humanity in Bangladesh.

“Those who are responsible for such cruelties, those who ordered them, must be punished. This is not about vengeance,” Tarique added.

“I strongly believe people cannot support a political party or its activists who murder, forcibly disappear people, or launder money,” he added.