Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), landed in Dhaka on Thursday, along with his wife and daughter, after 17 years of living in exile in London.
Rahman’s return to Bangladesh comes at a crucial juncture as the country is reeling under violence and political instability following the death of prominent youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi last week, who was a prominent face in last year’s mass protests that forced the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina government.
Rahman, the 60-year-old son of ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia, has emerged as a leading contender for prime ministership in the polls even as the country’s Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has been trying to throw a stiff competition to the BNP in the polls.
He was received at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other senior party leaders amid tight security.
Elaborate security arrangements are in place in Dhaka for the exiled leader’s homecoming. Scores of people, braving the winter chill, have gathered to welcome former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s son home.
The BNP has emerged as the frontrunner to assume power in the February polls, with former Prime Minister Hasina’s Awami League barred from contesting the election.
Jamaat-e-Islami, the BNP’s coalition partner during its 2001-2006 tenure in power, has emerged as its main rival in the upcoming polls after the interim government blocked Awami League’s participation under the country’s tough Anti-Terrorism Act.
Around 4,000 army personnel, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and police in riot gear and plainclothes were deployed in Dhaka to ensure Rahman’s security.
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We have enforced an overt and covert security vigil,” a senior police official earlier said as supporters queued in long lines on both sides of the street from the airport to the reception site.
As per reports, the grim situation in Bangladesh further worsened on Wednesday after miscreants hurled a bomb from a flyover in front of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad in Dhaka’s Moghbazar area.
