BNP leader returns home, says Bangladesh should be secure for all
BILATERAL – INDIA-ASIA
26 DECEMBER 2025
- Bangladesh should be a “secure” home for all communities cutting across religious and regional differences, said the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Tarique Rahman, following his return home after nearly 18 years of exile in the United Kingdom.
- Addressing a mammoth rally in Dhaka, Mr. Rahman made a strong pitch for restoration of law and order and cautioned against “spies of the hegemonic powers”.
- “People from the hills as well as the plains live here. That apart, we have people belonging to Islam, Buddhist, Christian and Hindu faiths and for them we want to build a secure Bangladesh,” Mr. Rahman said in a speech delivered in Bengali at a public meeting.
- His strongest criticism was reserved for deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had fled to India after being ousted in a “student-people” uprising in July-August 2024.
- He called Chief Adviser of the interim government, Mohammed Yunus, and thanked him for his support.
- Mr. Rahman did not target the interim government or any other political stakeholders who will compete with his party in the February 2026 election in his speech.
- On the occasion of his return, the BNP launched the campaign for the February 12, 2026 election highlighting the role of Mr. Rahman’s father General Ziaur Rahman in introducing major economic initiatives and foreign policy changes during his tenure in the late 1970s.
- The BNP narrative gave General Zia the credit for announcing the Independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971 hours after the Pakistani forces launched Operation Searchlight on March 25, 1971 to kill freedom fighters in the erstwhile East Pakistan.
- In his speech, Mr. Rahman compared the fall of Ms. Hasina’s government on August 5, 2024 with November 7, 1975 when General Zia had become the de facto ruler of Bangladesh after the “civil-military uprising” in the chaotic situation that followed the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members in a military coup.
- In the election propaganda videos launched, the BNP presented Sheikh Mujib as a totalitarian leader who was responsible for the launch of Rakshi Bahini, a militia that targeted his opponents and showed video footage of the severe famine of 1974 which they blamed on the economic policies of the Mujib administration.
