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Published : 12 Dec 2025, 10:13 PM
Tarique Rahman has been confirmed to return to Bangladesh on Dec 25, according to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
The information was shared on Friday after an emergency BNP Standing Committee meeting in Gulshan, with the BNP chief joining virtually from London.
Afterwards, Fakhrul said their leader, whom he described as a figure “deeply admired by the nation”, would “set foot on Dhaka’s soil on the 25th”.
“We, on behalf of the party and the entire nation, welcome his arrival with joy,” he added.
Tarique, the eldest son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, was previously arrested during the 2007-08 military-backed caretaker government, along with his mother.
After his release, he moved to London with his family and had not returned since.
On Feb 8, 2018, the day Khaleda was jailed in the Zia Orphanage Trust case, the BNP Standing Committee appointed Tarique as acting chairman.
For the last seven years, he has run the party from London through video calls, while Fakhrul and a handful of senior leaders managed the BNP operations on the ground.
In 2020, the Awami League government granted Khaleda conditional freedom through an executive order, leaving her effectively confined to her home and hospital.
The former prime minister made no public political appearances during that time.
After the government change on Aug 5 last year, the president fully lifted her sentence, and the High Court later cleared her of corruption charges.
Tarique, who faced several convictions under the previous government, was also acquitted in multiple cases, removing legal barriers to his return.
Khaleda travelled to London earlier this year for treatment, meeting her son after many years. Although she returned to Dhaka, Tarique did not travel with her.
The BNP leaders repeatedly hinted that he would “return soon”, but no firm date had been provided until Friday.
The announcement of BNP’s partial candidate list for the parliamentary polls, in which Tarique is contesting Bogura-6 for the first time, strengthened speculation about his return.
Questions resurfaced when Khaleda was hospitalised again on Nov 23 and Tarique remained in London.
Uncertainty deepened after his Nov 29 Facebook post, in which he wrote that although he longed to be with his ailing mother, the decision to travel was “not fully within [his] unilateral control”.
The debate widened further in political circles: what exactly was preventing Tarique from returning home?
Some questioned whether he was under political asylum in London, and what his precise “status” there might be.
The interim government said Tarique no longer holds a Bangladeshi passport but added that a travel pass could be arranged immediately if he wished to return.
He did not apply for one at the time and instead tried to bring his ailing mother to the UK for treatment.
Doctors had given approval, but complications with the air ambulance arose. When Khaleda’s condition worsened, the plan to take her abroad was postponed indefinitely.
The BNP chief remains hospitalised. In the meantime, Tarique’s wife Zubaida Rahman has arrived.
And now, Mirza Fakhrul has finally announced Tarique’s return, saying it will remove “obstacles to democracy”.
