Ex-PM Khaleda Zia’s son to return to Bangladesh ahead of Feb elections

The acting chairman and eldest son of former premier Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Monday announced that he would “return soon”, ending his 26 years in self-exile in London to contest the February general election. Tarique Rahman in an interview to BBC Bangla said, “For some reasonable reasons my return has not happened... but the time has come, and I will return soon.” The 58-year-old de facto chief of the BNP added, “I am running in the election (as well).”

Asked about the possibility of assuming office as PM if the BNP formed the government, he said, “The people will decide.” The then army-backed caretaker government sent him to London in 2008 for medical treatment while legal procedures were underway against him on several criminal and graft cases. He subsequently preferred to stay in the British capital during the subsequent Awami League government of now deposed premier Sheikh Hasina visibly to evade punitive actions.

One such case accused him of masterminding a grenade attack in 2004 on the then Opposition leader Hasina and her party leaders.