Tarique to return Dec 25 Fakhrul

Staff Reporter :

BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman is expected to come back to Bangladesh on 25 December, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir announced on Friday.

Fakhrul disclosed the information during a press briefing at the BNP Chairperson’s Gulshan office tonight, a day after Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin unveiled the schedule for the upcoming national election.

Meanwhile, a diplomat at the Bangladesh High Commission in London also informed the media that Tarique Rahman has not yet applied for a travel pass.

Mirza Fakhrul had previously hinted at Tarique’s homecoming during the opening session of the fifth day of the “BNP’s Plan to Build the Country” workshop in Dhaka yesterday, saying the BNP leader would return “very soon” after 17 years in self-imposed exile in London.

Earlier, on 7 August, Tarique Rahman’s foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kabir had stated that Tarique would come back to Bangladesh within December.

“The election schedule will likely be announced at the end of the year.

Based on that timeline, Tarique Rahman will return between November and December,” he said after speaking at a civic gathering in Sylhet.

“His security arrangements are being handled with utmost priority,” he added.

Tarique left for the United Kingdom in 2008 for medical treatment, shortly after his mother announced he would remain away from politics until his recovery.

According to his lawyers, a total of 84 cases were filed against him over the years.

However, following the ouster of the Awami League government in a mass uprising on 5 August last year, Tarique has since been acquitted of all those convictions.